new city, whose queen, Jocasta, is in mourning for her dead husband. Solving the riddle of the Sphinx (which proves him worthy of the throne), he marries the queen and becomes king.
Only then does he discover that the man he had killed was his real father and the woman he married was his real mother. Fulfilling the prophesy brings sorrow and suffering on his kingdom. Eventually, his mother/wife commits suicide, and he blinds himself. He eventually dies, old, blind, and alone, but at peace with the knowledge of the inevitability of his fate.
The Oedipus myth has survived ever since. Sophocles made it famous with his trilogy of plays about the tragic king, and Sigmund Freud decided that its central notion of the universal struggle between father and son for the affections of the mother is an essential rite of passage for all males everywhere.
Almost any fictional work which includes a father-son relationship can be read in Oedipal terms, whether the connection was intended by the author or not, since the mythic imagery is so psychologically fundamental. Considering a given text in these terms can lead to a deeper understanding both of the work itself and of the plot or thematic elements that give such universal endurance to the story.
George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy draws on a wide range of mythical sources, as Lucas himself admits: "With Star Wars I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs. I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that exist today" (Moyers 90). Many critics have pinpointed this as one of the most important reasons for the popularity of the series. Luke Skywalker's quest for manhood and identity touch familiar nerves, the same nerves that are stimulated by Oedipus' story.
In the first film, directed by Lucas himself, Luke is a fresh-faced young man living with his aunt and uncle on a backwater planet. He longs for adventure, convinced that he is dest...