Bryan Ruth Doug Sonheim English Studies February 1, 2008
Sigmund Freud, "The Destiny of Oedipus" Freud's whole response to Oedipus is that there must be something within it that the contemporary audience, us, can identify with and understand. He says that there must be parallels between Oedipus' condition and that which is inherent in all human beings. The similarity states Freud is that "His [Oedipus'] destiny moves us only because it might have been ours..." and that "It is the fate of all of us, perhaps, to direct our first sexual impulse towards our mother our and first hatred and our first murderous wish against our father." I disagree with Freud on this point and instead offer that not many of us do in fact hope to have relations with our mother or kill or father, but rather we identify with Oedipus in that sometimes we feel that we feel trapped by our own destinies. We try to create a path uniquely our own, but appear to be drawn by some force greater than ourselves that eventually ends up overpowering us. By trying to prevent what has been foreseen in our future, either by us or by others, we actually ended up fulfilling it.