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Although Don Jose of Carmen shows little parallelism to Oedipus of Oedipus Rex, the development of character of the former can be attributed to many aspects, mainly those of social and sexual tension, found in the latter, which has formed the basis for one of Freud's psychoanalytical studies known as the Oedipus Complex or Oedipus Conflict. Oedipus Conflict puts a young boy (or girl) in a hypothetical phase, called the phallic stage, in a volatile position where in having to direct his new-found sexual potential somewhere, he turns to the most readily available female - the mother, only to be confronted by a figure of authority, his father, and to be subdued through fear, depicted as a fear of castration in that hypothetical phase. Given enough flexibility, this modus of development can be used to represent any character developing in fear against its nature, and can certainly be shown true of Don Jose, already castrated at the beginning of his story - outcast (or exiled) from his homeland for resolving a quarrel through animal means. This concept of exile is perhaps one of the few points where we can draw a direct parallelism with Oedipus story; both Don Jose and Oedipus commit a crime by giving in to their animal nature, after which they are regarded as a disease (Gr.
pathos) of / to the society which they live in, and are subsequently exiled. Don Jose, however, is given another chance to live his life as a part of (another) society, where he meets an Oedipal mother / wife figure called Carmencita, and once again lives in fear of castration until he kills both her and himself as the second part of a double tragedy. Carmen, a manipulating femme fatale figure, the (un) justification of whose actions are not the responsibility of this text, manipulates Don Jose through a lifetime series of events by reaching his male ego -of animal and Oedipal nature- and drives his sexuality, in irony, to let Don Jose allow himself to be castrated non-sexually. What first strikes a reader of Carmen, in Carmen's infrequent dialogues are the italic, -mostly- Spanish words she uses to address Don Jose. She uses these words, consciously or unconsciously, to double-play on his nature, first to get him closer to her and be her companion (even if only to break out of captivity, p. 23), then to insult or threaten his functional potence. While the nature of these two sets of phrases differ, i.
e. compadre, laguna ene bihotzarenacompanion of my heart at the beginning versus canary, lillipendi near the end; they all play, as Freud would say, on Don Jose's id, failing to be governed by his super ego, thus creating an ego, a self-image that fails the expectations of the norm that is society. Don Jose even admits this fact in his telling of the story to the author (p. 24, 40). Moreover, the triangle consisting of Carmen, Garcia and Don Jose is an Oedipal construct in the classical sense; Carmen the mother, Garcia the authority (on Carmen) and Don Jose, the challenge with libidinal intentions towards Carmen. Unaffected by the fear of castration (perhaps through reflection of his pathos status in the society as a bandit, or blinded by love, or a mixture of both, p. 46) he goes on to slay Garcia and take his place as Carmen's rom. Of course, he suffers the consequences and becomes a pathos in his relationship with Carmen as well as the one with the society.
Inevitably, he fails in both and the story thus marks a double Greek tragedy.
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Research essay sample on Fear Of Castration Don Jose Carmen
