Oedipus Complex in the Kite Essay Example

own mind’ ….. And a man does not know his own mind till he is thirty or thirty-five”. Such a typical negative response is obviously of a jealous mother unwilling to share her son with a wife and who is trapping the soul of her son and ruins his personal. Herbert loves her mother almost like a mother-lover. The mother is the very axis and pole of his life. The bond between this mother and her son deepens when they fly the kites as fancy and hobby almost like a ritualistic manner every Saturday. Flying kites is like an imaginary escapism from the monotony of life.

The soul of Herbert is so possessed by the mother figure that this kite flying is like nearing to the mother denying the rest of attraction. If emotions are treated as manifestation of physico-psychic phenomena, Herbert’s fatal attraction for the kite is cul de sac of mother fixation. Herbert’s love for Betty and his choice of getting married to her is a desperate attempt to free himself from the excessive attachment to his mother. But he cannot give to Betty what he has already given to his mother; and thus results the terrible and torturing conflict within him.

Like Mrs. Morel in Lawrence’ Sons and Lovers Mrs. Sunbury is Jealous of her daughter-in-law. Mrs. Sunbury dislikes Betty who will suck all her Son’s Soul and leave nothing for her. Therefore, she does her best to break up their relationship. In the dark shadow of the mother image that comes between Paul’s relations with Miriam in Sons and Lovers, can have its parallel to Herbert – Betty relationship. Alike Paul, Herbert is

incapable of satisfactory sexual adjustment owing to his mother fixation.

The Oedipus complex in him has weakened and stunted emotionally. In the kite the whole story is given a symbolic significance through flying a kite. It is an act of affectionate attachment. Even it is not a plaything, rather an extension of Beatrice’s control over her son. After the marriage what Betty objects and rebels against is Herbert’s flying of the kite on Saturdays with his parents. She dislikes this childish act and warns Herbert from doing this silly favour. But Herbert’s fatal attraction for the kite is a string of mother fixation. Mrs.

Sunbury pulls the thread of the kite (emotional attachment) to control over her son. When all the possible pleadings result in vain, Betty hacks down the kite which ultimately aggravates the situation. Herbert chooses the prison instead of providing the alimony to his wife. The smashing of the kite is a kind of matricide for him which he can not forbear. The entire complication of the story can thus be read through the Freudian complexes. Maugham is an explorer of human relationships and in this story he has studied sex relationship from different angles.

Mrs. Sunbury and Betty are both wrong in being too possessive. Both of them want to possess the soul or the personae of Herbert. But satisfactory relationship result only when we recognize the otherness of the other individuals. Successful adjustment would have resulted had these two women recognized that Herbert has a separate identity with separate personae of his own, which can reach fulfillment in its own way. The mother fails to recognize this truth and so ruins the life

of Herbert.