Freud and Levi-Strauss' explanations of the roles and positions of women in kinship structures - Essay Example

?Write an essay showing how Freud and Levi-Strauss' explanations of the roles and positions of women in kinship structures can be used to examine howfemale characters (and their actions and relationships) are presented in texts we have studied this semester (Weeks 2-14). You must discuss TWO or THREE texts and make clear what parts of Freud and Levi-Strauss' theories you are using. Introduction Oedipus the King and The Hours have different stories that unlock the mysteries of traditional flaws. The two stories are considered as the best novels of Sophocles for Oedipus the King and Michael Cunningham for the Hours. The two stories will be tackled in this paper as their contextual framework base on the roles of women will be explored. With such purpose, the present paper will be significant in terms of using the psychological and socio-cultural basis of the two famous contemporaries (Freud for the latter and Levi-Strauss for the former) whose disciplines and theoretical concepts will be used to reflect for the ageless literature of Sophocles and modern literature in the advancement of the 21st century of Michael Cunningham. Jocasta’s role in Oedipus the King Jocasta has been troubled with fate that brought her family and the whole land into nuisance. Jocasta became the wife of his own son, Oedipus. Jocasta could not bear the truth and felt shame based on what happened to her situation. She killed herself after knowing the truth (Johnston 2007, 63). She felt being humiliated by faith. Women’s Roles and Relationships in “The Hours” The movie has three main characters whose lives are interestingly similar with their life experiences and struggles in life. The three women only differed in the set of time and separated with the span of decade (McCarthy 2002, 39). Woolf, who is primarily emphasized in the novel, wrote the Mrs. Dalloway novel in London in the early 20th century. Therefore, the story of the Hours contributes in covering Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” novel (Spohrer 2005, 113). This would mean that Cunningham (2008) has reviewed and evolved the novel of Woolf by generating two characters (Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughn that overwhelms the personality of Mrs. Dalloway and the author itself. The role of Virginia Woolf in the story illustrates her psychological illness of depression which results to her suicidal tendency situation (Holden 2002). She was a writer who inspired the other two protagonists (Brown and Vaughn) in the Hours story with the life of Clarissa Dalloway. The protagonist in the novel of Woolf has been found to fell in love with a woman who may have experienced identity confusion. The confusion of Clarissa Dalloway resulted to her inability to express herself and freedom which may have influence her to cut off her life. Mrs. Dalloway is a representation of Woolf to herself as she was confused and worried not to live a healthy, normal life. She has been anxious by thinking how his husband’s life could be ruined with her illness. Hence, she was afraid that her role as a wife whose succumbing for the pain of mental illness will also make his husband suffer, which made her to illogically tabulate herself to death like Mrs. Dalloway. Laura Brown, the other main character of Cunningham’s The Hours (2008) could relate herself to Mrs. Dalloway as Laura read on about her life. She has the role of being a mother and a wife, as well. The intonation of The Hours novel speaks out that Laura is not contented with what she has because she is searching for herself like Mrs. Dalloway. Both of them are struggling to know that what they wanted in life is not that easy to reach because there are hindrances. Laura Brown’s hindrance to reach her goal of satisfying her single adulthood stage are his son and husband since she was married early while Dalloway was bothered the society’s norms and standards forbids her to take the woman she loved, her true love. On the other roll of the novel scene, Clarissa Vaughn, who is the other main character of Cunningham’s novel, serves to portray the role of being uncertain to herself, too. This has been shown in the novel when Vaughn could not deny to herself that she is still falling in love with her ex-lover. No matter how hard she tried to comfort and show love to her present lover, her heart is still searching for the past. She is like experiencing a zeigarnik effect role in which her heart did not totally close for the love that she has felt for her ex-lover. She is in the midst of unfinished affair-unclear, ambiguous and obsolete. Hence, Vaughn is like Dalloway in which both of them were depriving themselves to take the love that they wanted because of the traditional societal rules. For Vaughn, she could not easily admit to her past lover because the verdict of the society demands that a woman or a man must not covet when one is already corded for marriage. On the other hand, Dalloway had experienced the same dilemma because the traditional rule does not allow same sex relationship. Application of Freud’s theory The story of Jocasta in relation to his son, Oedipus, is the origin of Freud’s term of Oedipus complex. According to Ahmed (2012, 60), Oedipus complex is a Freudian concept that refers to the early development stage of young boys. It is part of the development of a boy that usually occurs for at least five years of age. Oedipus complex is commonly described with a boy’s attraction to his mother while wishing for his love and affection. Hence, there is a combination of a mother and a lover’s love. On the other hand, The Hours entails the role of Virginia Woolf that could be relative to how Freud describes one’s tendency to suicide. Freud termed one’s feeling of “loss-rejection” which could be the feeling of Woolf to take her actions to completely lose herself (Lenaars 1991, 146). Woolf rejected and gave up herself because she felt an intrapsychic loss where her happiness to live normally with her husband has been shattered. The theoretical view of Freud for suicidal tendency suggests that there are three major facets for suicide which refer to one’s wish to kill others, one’s wish to be killed, and one’s wish to die (Masango, Rataermane, & Motojesi, 2009). These facets are manifested in the behavior of Woolf as she tried to kill herself because of hopelessness in life. The theoretical concepts of Freud based on the three aspects of one’s personality: id (Pleasure self), ego (Balance self), and superego (Conscientious self) could be associated to Laura Brown’s situation. There is an imbalance between the id and superego aspect of Laura. As she seeks for her ideal self, she wishes to find leisure time for herself which makes her ego to be inflated. This is shown in the novel as she tried to recall how early was it for her to commit for marriage when she realized that she has not yet reached the dreams for herself. Hence, she is craving to take the side of her id, her pleasure and desire to explore more something for herself. This would determine how Freud’s concept of id made Laura to be subconscious with her shattered dreams that resulted to her unsatisfying gratifications. The role of Clarissa Vaughn is relative to the repression term of Freud wherein the person becomes ambiguous of her emotions. Freud indicates that people who tend to avoid things tends to conceal the truth that lies beneath the heart of one’s emotion and mind which would result to the repression of a person (Billig 1999, 1). This would mean that Clarissa Vaughn is trying to hide her true feelings because she might be afraid of going beyond the rules and standards of love in their society where marriage should be kept. Clarissa Vaughn already has a husband; however, she has been discovering in herself that she could not totally move on in reminiscing her memories with Richard, the past lover. This is impeccable to how Freud explained that repression could lead one to rediscover and refresh one’s unconscious desires like how Clarissa Vaughn yearned and longed for Richard, which blocked her to move on and to totally open her heart to others especially toward her husband. Application of Levi-Strauss theory The concept of Levi-Strauss replenished the ideas of Freud in relation to one’s kinship for incest taboo where blood related people tend to blind themselves for an affection of amorous love to each other. This is much related to the role of Jocasta in the story of Oedipus whose role as a mother has been attached to his own son whom she loved as her husband. In the story of the Hours, incest has been not much emphasized, but the kinship relations of women in their desire to strive in search for themselves could be the same in terms of how the main characters would forbid to the norms and traditions of their culture and society like the incest taboo couples. Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughn did not commit incest, but the structural marriage of the women were distorted because they are all experiencing to languish their womanhood (Silva 2007, 11). Hence, the three main characters are seeking for reciprocity for themselves just like how Levi-Strauss denotes how blood related persons are seeking for equal beneficence and judgment of other people. This would mean that Levi-Strauss has the theoretical concepts for incest marriage concepts which emphasized that the society must not undermine incest couples. The three main characters have the same action with almost the same standard of relationships with their husbands, but were afraid to take action for their happiness. This is because they were like the incest couples who like to exist in this world without judgment who could take the freedom to explore their lives while taking up the path for mental health of heart and mind (Woolf’s desire), wandering with true love (Vaughn’s desire), and searching for oneself (Brown’s desire). The desires of these three main characters were like the incest of Levi-Strauss who wanted to take their relationship and actions without the prejudice of the society. Conclusion The story of Sophocles has been relevant to contribute on Freud’s theory for Oedipus complex, and it has been a very good example of Levi Strauss’ incest taboo. On the other hand, the story of The Hours needs to be more critically analyzed based on how it could be related to Freud and Levi-Strauss’ theory. However, the Hours showed the diverse situational roles of women with common desires for freedom and instate pleasures as Woolf desired to take suicide, Brown had imbalances to personality state of mind (id, ego, superego) and Vaughn took repression, Freud’s term for one’s defense mechanism to hide one’s authentic state of feelings and intentions. Conclusively, the roles of the three women of the Hours were not literal to the incest taboo of Levi Strauss unlike Jocasta of Sophocles, but they were the same in terms of how all of them feared to face the reality and consequences on how they controlled their lives, their fates and destinies. References Ahmed, Sofe. 2012. “Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Oedipus Complex: A Critical Study with Reference to D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers.” Internal Journal of English and Literature 3 (3): 60-70. Billig, Michael. 1999. Freudian Repression: Conversion Creating the Unconscious. Melbourne, AU: Cambridge University Press. Cunningham, Michael. 2008. The Hours. New York, NY: Picador. Holden, Stephen. 2002. “The Hours (2002) Film Review; Who’s Afraid like Virginia Woolf?” The New York Times, December 27. Johnston, Ian. 2007. Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Arlington, VA: Richer Resources Publications. Lenaars, Antoon A. 1991. Life Span Perspectives of Suicide: Timelines in the Suicide Process. New York, NY: Plenum. Masango, S. M., S. T. Rataermane, A. A. Motojesi. 2009. “Suicide and Suicide Risk Factors: A Literature Review.” SA Farm Pract 50 (6): 25-29. McCarthy, Todd. 2002. “The Hours.” Variety 389 (5): 39. Silva, Francisco Vaz da. 2007. “Folklore into Theory: Freud and Levi-Strauss on Incest and Marriage.” Journal of Folklore Research 44 (1): 1-19. Spohrer, Erika. 2005. Seeing Stars: Commodity Stardom in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. The Arizona Quarterly 61(2): 113. Read More