Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who dedicated  much of his life’s work to dream interpretations and later become known as the father of psychoanalysis. In his essay ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ Freud discusses Sophocles’ story of Oedipus Rex. The story of Oedipus tends to move audiences quite deeply simply for the fact that Oedipus’ story “might have been ours” (816, Freud). The story of Oedipus follows the life of a young man who fulfills a tragic oracle, saying he would later kill his father and bring disaster on his family and city. The prophecy proves true- Oedipus kills his father, marries and has children with his mother- all beyond his knowledge.  Freud uses this tale and examined the patterns of young children who were passing through the five stages of  psychosexual development. He discovered that during the third stage, or phallic stage (ages 3-6), the child is unconsciously drawn to the opposite sex parent. Freud suggests that both sexes experience this complex differently- the boy in a form of castration anxiety and the girl’s in a form of penis envy. In this phase of development, the male child creates a competition with  the father for possession of the mother and a young female child will create competition with the mother for possession of the father. Freud casts the idea that all humans children will direct their first sexual impulses towards the mother and the first hatred/murderous wish against the father. The story of Oedipus shows us the confirmation of our own childhood wishes.

Freud notes that Shakespeare’s Hamlet has similar Oedipal messages as Sophocles’ Oedipus. He contrasts these texts due to the secular advance of repression and the emotional life of mankind. Although Oedipus and Hamlet behold the same root feelings for their father and mother- “In Oedipus, the child’s wishful fantasy that underlies it is brought into the open and realized as it would be in a dream. In Hamlet, (his emotions) remain repressed; and- just as the case is in neurosis- we only learn of its existence from its inhibiting consequences” (817, Freud).

I found the relationships between these two texts quite interesting. If young children hold primal desires towards the parent of the opposite text- I wonder if the experiences held with that parent would entirely determine the type of relationships that child will seek for the rest of its life? We know that Sophocles and Hamlet’s situations concluded bleakly.