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(2016
final exam assignment) Sample Student Final Exam Essays 2016 Essay 3. Special Topics on Tragedy Special Topic # 3: Families in Tragedy + The Oedipal / Electra Conflict |
LITR 4370 Tragedy
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Incest is Just Relative: Coping with the Oedipal/Electra Conflict in Tragedy
While we as children are expected to love our parents, some people take
it a bit too far. The family dynamic is
a central theme in many tragedies.
However, for various reasons, said dynamic is different from a normal, healthy
family. In a regular family,
violence and sexuality are often repressed (who actually wants to talk to their
parents about sex?), but in tragedy, these themes are often not only not
repressed, but emphasized. The
so-called Oedipal and Electra conflicts plague these families.
While it might seem like incest is a plot point used only in ancient
tragedies like “Oedipus the King” and “Agamemnon,” it is still something that
can be found in current tragedies.
This essay will explore the theme of incest in tragedy, and determine what the
reader can learn from these conflicts.
In most great tragedies, “family” is central to the story.
Most people are raised in a family setting, and it is something we
understand and relate with, regardless of how much we like or dislike our family
members. If the purpose of tragedy
is to invoke the sense of anguish that comes with the death of a loved one,
along with teaching the audience a lesson, what better way to do that than to
make the story all about a family?
Who teaches us all of our most important lessons in life?
Our family. Who can we turn
to for help with our problems? Our
family. Whose deaths do we lament
more than any other? Our family’s.
Tragedy uses the family as the means to teach the audience a lesson,
because that hits home with most people.
When Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus murder Agamemnon for sacrificing her
daughter and disappearing for 10 years, it is all the more tragic because the
murderer is his wife, not just a random stranger with a grudge.
If Oedipus had not been the son of Laius and Jocasta, then finding out he
was the murderer of the former king would have been severely less impactful.
Since most people have a family, the family is of paramount importance to
the tragic narrative. The downfall
of the tragic hero is all the more tragic because it is usually at the hands of
his family. In his
Poetics, Aristotle sums this up
perfectly by saying “when
the tragic incident
occurs between those who are near or dear to one another—if, for example, a
brother kills, or intends to kill, a brother, a son his father, a mother her
son, a son his mother, or any other deed of the kind is done—these are the
situations to be looked for by the poet.”
When King Oedipus found out he had killed his father and had sex with his
mother, his reaction was understandable, if a bit extreme.
Certainly making and raising children with your mother would be something
to be a bit upset about. When the
reader finds this out, the reaction is much the same.
The idea of sleeping with your mother is certainly disgusting.
We write it off as gross, then wash our hands of the whole subject.
However, tragedy writers do not.
Incest is revisited time and again in tragedies.
In Mourning Becomes Electra,
Orin’s love for his mother is admirable, until you learn that he feels a little
more strongly about her than the usual parent-child love.
Even more recently, HBO’s Game of
Thrones, and the books they are based on, feature incest very prominently
between some of the main characters.
That is sibling incest, mostly, but it still remains a theme throughout
the entire series. At first glance,
this may seem to be just for shock value, but I believe it has a very important
purpose. Before we can explore that
purpose, though, we must first delve into the role of the family in tragedy.
Incest is not always as easy to spot as in
Game of Thrones or the Theban
trilogy. Take, for example, Eugene
O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms.
In the play, Cabot is the owner of a farm, with his three sons.
He leaves the farm for some time, and returns to his sons with a new
wife, since his previous wife had passed away.
One of Cabot’s sons, Eben, falls in love with the new wife, Abbie, and
has an affair with her. Though they
are not related, this coupling has very incestuous undertones.
The least of these undertones is the fact that Abbie is, technically, his
“mother,” if only by marriage.
However, it goes much deeper than this.
Abbie lures Eben to the parlor that has not been opened since the
mother’s death. There she starts to
proposition Eben, appealing to his desires to be reunited with his mother.
The stage directions state “(In
spite of her overwhelming desire for him, there is a sincere maternal love in
her manner and voice – a horribly frank mixture of lust and mother love.).”
There is an interesting conflict here, between earnest maternal love and
carnal lust. Abbie later says
“Don’t be afeered! I’ll kiss ye pure, Eben – same ‘s if I was a Maw t’ye – an’
ye kin kiss me back ‘s if yew was my son – my boy – sayin’ good-night t- me!”
This passage goes on to detail the passion (and revulsion) between the
two the ultimately culminates in copulation.
While it is not directly incestuous, Abbie’s speech draws forth any
incestuous feelings Eben might have had for his mother, and plays on his desire
for motherly love.
In Hamlet, the Oedipal
conflict comes into play, but in a very subdued manner.
In Act 3, Scene 4, Hamlet catches his mother in her bedroom with another
man (Polonius) and kills him. In a
frenzy, he frightens his mother and reveals to her that Claudius was the
murderer of Hamlet’s father. When
she is weeping, he comforts her at the behest of the ghost of his father.
Hamlet implores his mother to not sleep with Claudius because of this.
According to Freud, Hamlet acts this way out of a desire for his mother.
Dr. White sums it up perfectly when saying “Old
King Hamlet and King Claudius represent every child's progressive attitude
toward the father figure. In very early childhood, the father figure (here, old
King Hamlet) appears competent and worthy of respect in that a very young
child's needs are easily fulfilled. As the child ages, however, the shortcomings
of the father figure (here, new King Claudius) are exposed, and the child judges
the father to be unworthy of the mother's love.”
While not directly incestuous, this scene plays on the very deep feelings
Hamlet has for his mother; so deep, that he would try to prevent her from ever
bedding her husband. It is normal
to not want to think of your mother having sex, but Hamlet goes to great lengths
to prevent that from happening.
Since
family plays an integral role in the tragic narrative, strife within the family
is just as important. Incest might
seem gross to the reader, and that is a perfectly normal reaction.
However, it is never there just for the sake of being there.
The incestuous relationships always serve a purpose.
Orin goes into a fit of rage when he finds out his mother, for whom he
has incestuous feelings, has been having an affair, and this leads to her death.
His rage is emphasized by his feelings for his mother.
Had he been just another suitor, it would not have had the same effect.
It is the same for Oedipus.
Just as with his ties to his father, if Jocasta had just been any other woman,
he probably would not have gouged his eyes out and fled the country, instead
just feeling bad then going on about his life.
Incest really drives home the despair he felt.
In
Desire Under the Elms, incest is used
to help the audience understand how Eben felt when cornered by Abbie.
The idea of sex, in most cases, is very alluring, even when it is not
desired. It calls upon the primal
nature of man to procreate.
However, the idea of any kind of sexual feeling toward a family member generally
elicits revulsion and horror. Eben
was caught between these two feelings.
He probably does not feel like he is lusting after his mother, but he
knows it is wrong to have sex with his father’s wife.
There is a major conflict between wanting have sex with this beautiful
woman, and not wanting to violate the sanctity of that union.
To help exemplify this, O’Neill decided to insert the incestuous thoughts
in the text. This really helps the
audience’s immersion into the feeling of the characters.
For Hamlet, his feelings for his mother were not wholly incestuous, but
still were used to help the audience grasp the despair and yearning Hamlet felt
for his mother not to betray his father.
Whether or not he actually desired her sexually is a moot point.
In the film adaptation of Hamlet,
the scene where Hamlet confronts his mother is accompanied with his attempted
rape of her. This is hardly
necessary, as his dialogue conveys the conviction and feelings he had for his
mother. The Oedipal conflict is
alive and well in Hamlet, and, as with Eben, truly helps convey the conflict and
torment in his character.
We can learn to cope with the gross theme of incest by seeing its
importance in tragedy. Betrayal,
violence, sex all are more impactful when associated with family.
Families are the backbone of society,
and we learn the most important lessons from our families.
When the lesson ends with the tragic death of a loved one, who better,
narratively, to teach the lesson than someone from within the family?
Tragedy is at its best when it uses themes like incest and familial
murder to drive a point home, because our own families are so close to our
hearts.
