Attila Jozsef’s Oedipus Complex Revealed Through His Escapes From Reality Escaping reality is needed to write freely and creatively. Jozsef constantly escapes reality and writes beautiful poems. In his escapes, he acts like a father figure. He writes about how he misses his mother’s love and yearns for his mother sexually. He gets upset and even mad because she isn’t there for him. From his escapes we can psychologically determine that Jozsef has an Oedipus complex. A factor of the Oedipus complex is for the boy to be to his mother as his father is. Jozsef reveals this in his poems by trying to be the man of the house. Bringing home food is an example of what the man of the house does. ” Bring you potatoes, chicken, and a sack of millet” (Jozsef 33).
This was one of the things Jozsef does to imitate his father. From the first lines in the poem called “Eulogy,” he shows his yearning for his mother’s affection and presence. ” I burn with a fever of ninety-eight point six degrees and mother you wont even nurse me” (33).
Jozsef’s mother desserts him so early that he never has a chance to out grow the childish need for a mother. He flashes back at the way she treated him. “You warmed my soup, blew it, and stirred it. And said eat and grow tall, my love” (33).
Like a child he wishes for her to be there to comfort and make him feel safe. The main idea of the Oedipus complex is that the boy wants his mother in a sexual way. Jozsef daydreams of her like a boy with a crush. ” I try to piece you together, from autumn scenes and a lot of women” (33) Jozsef pictures her as his fantasy woman. “I wear a pressed suit in my heart when I speak to you” (62).
The Essay on Oedipus Complex
One of the cornerstones of psychoanalysis is the Oedipus Complex. According to the generally accepted version during a session of self-analysis, Freud unearthed a childhood memory of being sexually aroused by seeing his mother naked. Soon after Freud uncovered these memories from his childhood, he postulated a universal law- the Oedipus Complex. Freud believed that in the phallic stage of ...
He imagines dressing up to impress her. ” I mustn’t think of your before my work is done, your dancing.”(62) He can’t get his mind of her and visions her dancing. All of these are ways of showing how much you love and miss your new girlfriend, but not your mother. Jozsef writes,” You took it form me, and gave yourself and your breasts to the worms? I should have eaten you”(33), He lusts for her sexually. He reveals the accepting of his mother’s death, and not being able to fulfill his desires. “Now you lips taste only the dampness”(33) He wants her lips to taste his. It can’t be, so like all jealous lovers he gets angry. His anger is because of her death. She broke his heart, never allowing his fantasies to be fulfilled. ” You used to comfort me and scold me, but I see know that your words were all lies? Your lips taste only the dampness- you lied to me on purpose”(33).
He gets disillusional by thinking he can still call her back and she will hear him. ” It’s been five weeks, I don’t know where you are.”(62) “I fell like cursing you, mamma, I cant hear you, yell at me? You’re terrible! You strive not to be, you ruin everything you shadow.”(34) His anger and Jealous rages are an insight to his love for her. In his escapes from reality Jozsef strives to take his fathers place. Revealing the intense feelings he has for his mother’s love and his sexual desire for her. He goes through all the stages that a person goes through when something tragic happens: Denial, anger, and finally acceptance. Jozsef’s poems are intense because he has so much feeling behind them. His poems to reveal the reality of his desires, which is why we can presume his complex.
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