My Oedipus Complex

by

Frank O’Connor

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The story’s protagonist and narrator, Larry is a five-year-old boy whose father returns home after fighting in the First World War. Since his father was at war for as long as Larry remembers, Larry is very close with his mother. The two of them eat meals together, take walks, and talk at length about Larry’s interests and ideas. Larry is an imaginative, energetic, and talkative child, who names his feet Mrs. Right and Mrs. Left and treats them as confidants, inventing and narrating dramas for them when he is alone. Once his father returns, however, Larry struggles to cope with his changing household. In addition to feeling more distant from his mother, Larry grows to view his father as a stranger and rival who is stealing his mother’s attention while acting indifferent and even hostile to Larry. Due to this, Larry begins to act out, interrupting his parents’ conversations, talking back to his father, and drinking his mother’s tea. Often, Larry crawls into his parents’ bed to be close to his mother, and, in one instance, Larry brazenly tells his mother (in front of his father) that he plans to marry her. After the birth of Larry’s baby brother, Sonny, the dynamic in the household changes again; suddenly, Larry’s mother is only paying attention to the infant, leaving Larry and his father in an uneasy alliance. Throughout the story, the limitations of Larry’s youthful perspective are clear: he thinks one buys babies, for instance, and he doesn’t understand why he can’t share a bed with his mother while his father can. While Larry can be domineering and judgmental, he is largely a funny, observant, and charming child.

Larry Quotes in My Oedipus Complex

The My Oedipus Complex quotes below are all either spoken by Larry or refer to Larry. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Father vs. Son Theme Icon
).
My Oedipus Complex Quotes

The war was the most peaceful period of my life.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

Ours was the only house in the terrace 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.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), The Geneys
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

“It’s not God who makes wars, but bad people.”

Related Characters: Mother (Mummy) (speaker), Larry, Father (Daddy, Mick)
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

I was sickened by the sentimentality of her “poor Daddy.” I never liked that sort of gush; it always struck me as insincere.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:

I simply longed for the warmth and depth of the big featherbed.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Related Symbols: The Beds
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:

“Mummy,” I said with equal firmness. “I think it would be healthier for Daddy to sleep in his own bed.”

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Related Symbols: The Beds
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:

All his previous shouting was as nothing to these obscene words referring to my person. They really made my blood boil. “Smack your own!” I screamed hysterically. “Smack your own! Shut up! Shut up!”

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] but the sheer indignity of being struck at all by a stranger, a total stranger who had cajoled his way back from the war into our big bed as a result of my innocent intercession, made me completely dotty.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:

“I’m going to marry you,” I said quietly. Father gave a great guffaw out of him, but he didn’t take me in. I knew it must only be pretense. And Mother, in spite of everything, was pleased. I felt she was probably relieved to know that one day Father’s hold on her would be broken.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 290
Explanation and Analysis:

I couldn’t understand why the child wouldn’t sleep at the proper time, so whenever Mother’s back was turned I woke him.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), Sonny
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

It was his turn now. After turning me out of the big bed, he had been turned out himself.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), Sonny
Related Symbols: The Beds
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis:

At Christmas he went out of his way to buy me a really nice model railway.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Sonny
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis:
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Larry Quotes in My Oedipus Complex

The My Oedipus Complex quotes below are all either spoken by Larry or refer to Larry. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Father vs. Son Theme Icon
).
My Oedipus Complex Quotes

The war was the most peaceful period of my life.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

Ours was the only house in the terrace 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.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), The Geneys
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

“It’s not God who makes wars, but bad people.”

Related Characters: Mother (Mummy) (speaker), Larry, Father (Daddy, Mick)
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

I was sickened by the sentimentality of her “poor Daddy.” I never liked that sort of gush; it always struck me as insincere.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:

I simply longed for the warmth and depth of the big featherbed.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Related Symbols: The Beds
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:

“Mummy,” I said with equal firmness. “I think it would be healthier for Daddy to sleep in his own bed.”

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Related Symbols: The Beds
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:

All his previous shouting was as nothing to these obscene words referring to my person. They really made my blood boil. “Smack your own!” I screamed hysterically. “Smack your own! Shut up! Shut up!”

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] but the sheer indignity of being struck at all by a stranger, a total stranger who had cajoled his way back from the war into our big bed as a result of my innocent intercession, made me completely dotty.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:

“I’m going to marry you,” I said quietly. Father gave a great guffaw out of him, but he didn’t take me in. I knew it must only be pretense. And Mother, in spite of everything, was pleased. I felt she was probably relieved to know that one day Father’s hold on her would be broken.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy)
Page Number: 290
Explanation and Analysis:

I couldn’t understand why the child wouldn’t sleep at the proper time, so whenever Mother’s back was turned I woke him.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), Sonny
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

It was his turn now. After turning me out of the big bed, he had been turned out himself.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Mother (Mummy), Sonny
Related Symbols: The Beds
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis:

At Christmas he went out of his way to buy me a really nice model railway.

Related Characters: Larry (speaker), Father (Daddy, Mick), Sonny
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis: