My Oedipus Complex
By Frank O'Connor
Brief Introduction
Frank O』Connor (1903-1966) was born into grinding poverty in the slums of the Irish City of Cork. He left school at 14 and was largely self-educated. He is generally regarded as one of the 20th century’s great short storywriters. His first collection, Guests of the Nation, appeared in 1931, to be followed by Bones of Contention in 1936, The Stories of Frank O』Connor, and some others.
As one of O』Connor’s themes, the problems of youth and adolescence are explored in some of his stories where he expertly describes what can trouble young lives, the early jealousies, fears and complexes.
「My Oedipus Complex」 is a unique title for the story. Oedipus is a character in the Greek mythology. He was the son of Laius, King of Thebes, and Jocasta his wife. To avoid the fulfillment of the prophecy that he would murder his father and marry his mother, Oedipus was abandoned on the mountains soon after birth and later adopted by the shepherd. Grown up, he unknowingly killed his father. Having solved the riddle of the Sphinx, he accordingly became the King of Thebes, and thus married Jocasta without the knowledge that she was his mother. When the facts came to light, Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore out his eyes.
「My Oedipus Complex」 is a clever story about a young boy, Larry, who grows up in his own safe world with just himself and his mother. However, when his father returns from WWI, a man whom Larry hardly knows, it is a constant battle between the two for the mother's love and attention. With great gentleness, O』Connor depicts the important business of a small boy – growing up and leaving the self-centered childhood world behind.
Father was in the army all through the war--the first war, I mean --so, up to the age of five, I never saw much of him, and what I saw did not worry me. Sometimes I woke and there was a big figure in khaki[1] peering down at me in the candlelight. Sometimes in the early morning I heard the slamming of the front door and the clatter of nailed boots down the cobbles of the lane. These were Father's entrances and exits. Like Santa Claus he came and went mysteriously.
In fact, I rather liked his visits, though it was an uncomfortable squeeze between Mother and him when I got into the big bed in the early morning: He smoked, which gave him a pleasant musty smell, and shaved, an operation of astounding interest. Each time he left a trail of souvenirs --model tanks and Gurkha knives[2] with handles made of bullet cases, and German helmets and cap badges and button-sticks[3], and all sorts of military equipment--carefully stowed away in a long box on top of the wardrobe, in case they ever came in handy. There was a bit of the magpie about Father; he expected everything to come in handy[4]. When his back was turned, Mother let me get a chair and rummage through his treasures. She didn't seem to think so highly of them as he did.
The war was the most peaceful' period of my life. The window of my attic faced southeast. My mother had curtained it, but that had small effect. I always woke with the first light and, with all the responsibilities of the previous day melted, feeling myself rather like the sun, ready to illumine and rejoice. Life never seemed so simple and clear and full of possibilities as then. I put my feet out from under the clothes--I called them Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right--and invented dramatic situations for them in which they discussed the problems of the day. At least Mrs. Right did; she was very demonstrative, but I hadn't the same control of Mrs. Left, so she mostly contented herself with nodding agreement.
They discussed what Mother and I should do during the day, what Santa Claus should give a fellow for Christmas, and what steps should be taken to brighten the home. There was that little matter of the baby, for instance. Mother and I could never agree about that. Ours was the only house in the terrace[5] without a new baby, and Mother said we couldn't afford one till Father came back from the war because they cost seventeen and six. That showed how simple she was. The Geneys up the road had a baby, and everyone knew they couldn't afford seventeen and six. It was probably a cheap baby, and Mother wanted something really good, but I felt she was too exclusive. The Geney’s baby would have done just fine.
Having settled my plans for the day, I got up, put a chair under the attic window, and lifted the frame high enough to stick out my head. The window overlooked the front gardens of the terrace behind ours, and beyond these it looked over a deep valley to the tall, red-brick houses terraced up the opposite hillside, which were all still in shadow, while those at our side of the valley were all lit up, though with long strange shadows that made them seem unfamiliar; rigid and painted.
After that I went into Mother's room and climbed into the bed. She woke and I began to tell her of my schemes. By this time, though I never seem to have noticed it, I was petrified in my nightshirt, and I thawed[6] as I talked until, the last frost melted, I fell asleep beside her and woke again only when I heard her below in the kitchen, making the breakfast.
After breakfast we went into town; heard Mass at St. Augustine's and said a prayer for Father, and did the shopping. If the afternoon was fine we either went for a walk in the country or a visit to Mother's great friend in the convent, Mother St. Dominic. Mother had them all praying for Father, and every night, going to bed, I asked God to send him back safe from the war to us. Little, indeed, did I know what I was praying for!
One morning, I got into the big bed, and there, sure enough, was Father in his usual Santa Claus manner, but later, instead of a uniform, he put on his best blue suit, and Mother was as pleased as anything. I saw nothing to be pleased about, because, out of uniform, Father was altogether less interesting, but she only beamed, and explained that our prayers had been answered, and off we went to Mass to thank God for having brought Father safely home.
The irony of it[7]! That very day when he came in to dinner he took off his boots and put on his slippers, donned[8] the dirty old cap he wore about the house to save him from colds, crossed his legs, and began to talk gravely to Mother, who looked anxious. Naturally, I disliked her looking anxious, because it destroyed her good looks, so I interrupted him..
「Just a moment, Larry !」 she said gently.
This was only what she said when we had boring visitors, so I attached no importance to it and went on talking.
「Do be quiet, Larry!」 she said impatiently. 「Don't you hear me talking to Daddy?」
This was the first time I had heard those ominous words, 「talking to Daddy,」 and I couldn't help feeling that if this was how God answered prayers, he couldn't listen to them very attentively.
「Why are you talking to Daddy?' I asked with as great a show of indifference as I could muster.
「Because Daddy and I have business to discuss. Now, don't interrupt again !」
In the afternoon, at Mother's request, Father took me for a walk. This time we went into town instead of out to the country, and I thought at first, in my usual optimistic way, that it might be an improvement. It was nothing of the sort. Father and I had quite different notions of a walk in town. He had no proper interest in trams, ships, and horses, and the only thing that seemed to divert[9] him was talking to fellows as old as himself. When I wanted to stop he simply went on, dragging me behind him by the hand; when he wanted to stop I had no alternative but to do the same. I noticed that it seemed to be a sign that he wanted to stop for a long time whenever he leaned against a wall. The second time I saw him do it I got wild. He seemed to be settling himself for ever. I pulled him by the coat and trousers, but, unlike Mother who, if you were too persistent, got into a wax[10] and said: "Larry, if you don't behave yourself, I'll give you a good slap." Father had an extraordinary capacity for amiable inattention. I sized him up and wondered would I cry, but he seemed to be too remote to be annoyed even by that. Really, it was like going for a walk with a mountain! He either ignored the wrenching and pummeling entirely, or else glanced down with a grin of amusement from his peak. I had never met anyone so absorbed in himself as he seemed.
At teatime, 「talking to Daddy" began again, complicated this time by the fact that he had an evening paper, and every few minutes he put it down and told Mother something new out of it. I felt this was foul play. Man for man, I was prepared to compete with him any time for Mother's attention, but when he had it all made up for him by other people it left me no chance. Several times I tried to change the subject without success.
「You must be quiet while Daddy is reading, Larry,」 Mother said impatiently.
It was clear that she either genuinely liked talking to Father better than talking to me, or else that he had some terrible hold on her which made her afraid to admit the truth.
「Mummy,」 I said that night when she was tucking me up[11], 「do you think if I prayed hard God would send Daddy back to the war?」
She seemed to think about that for a moment.
「No, dear,」 she said with a smile. 「l don't think he would.」
「Why wouldn't he, Mummy?」
「Because there isn’t a war any longer, dear.」
「But, Mummy, couldn't God make another war, if he liked?」
「He wouldn't like to, dear. It's not God who makes wars, but bad people.」
「Oh !」 I said.
I was disappointed about that. I began to think that God wasn’t quite what he was cracked up to be[12].
Next morning I woke at my usual hour, feeling like a bottle of champagne. I put out my feet and invented a long conversation in which Mrs. Right talked of the trouble she had with her own father till she put him in the Home[13]. I didn't quite know what the Home was but it sounded the right place for Father. Then I got my chair and stuck my head out of the attic window. Dawn was just breaking, with a guilty air that made me feel I had caught it[14] in the act. My head bursting with stories and schemes, I stumbled in next door, and in the half-darkness scrambled into the big bed. There was no room at Mother's side so I had to get between her and Father. For the time being I had forgotten about him, and for several minutes I sat bolt upright, racking my brains to know[15] what I could do with him. He was taking up more than his fair share of the bed, and I couldn't get comfortable, so I gave him several kicks that made him grunt and stretch. He made room all right, though. Mother waked and felt for me. I settled back comfortably in the warmth of the bed with my thumb in my mouth.