Parallel Personalities

Sigmund Freud developed the theory of the Oedipal Complex. Used to describe a son’s sexual attraction to his mother and jealousy towards his father, this theory was originally developed when Oedipus, the mythical king of Thebes, fulfilled the prophecy which foretold him killing his father and marrying his mother. In Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Noboru falls prey to the Oedipal Complex as he becomes enchanted by his mother’s physical beauty. Like Oedipus, he is blissfully unaware of the attraction he experiences. He compares Fusako’s naked beauty to the physical beauty of the sea, “Her shoulders, like the shoreline, sloped gently downward” (Mishima, 7).

            This theory also states that there is a jealousy or hate towards the man who takes you away, intimately, from your mother – your father. The mythical king of Thebes killed his father, whereas Noboru finds peace knowing his father is dead; “Therefore, his [Noboru’s] own father’s death, when he was eight, had been a happy incident, something to be proud of” (8). 

            Sophocles and Mishima create the characters Oedipus and Noboru who are parallel to each other in terms of the Oedipal Complex.