Term Paper on "Element of Dysfunction in a Father Son Relationship"

Term Paper 5 pages (1656 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Dysfunction in a Father/Son relationship

Two of the most important contemporary playwrights, Sam Shepard and Amy Freed tackle similar subjects in their theatre pieces. Thus, their plays are engaged in liminal and traumatic psychological experiences. The intersection between the characters' minds and experiences is particularly analyzed. The main theme of both plays under discussion here, Buried Child and Freedomland, is the pathological relationships established among the members of the same family and especially the dysfunctional relation between father and son. The plays have a deep archetypal structure, which recalls some of the greatest myths and stories of humanity. Thus, Shepard's book incorporates important allusions to the Oedipus Myth while Amy Freed's play hints at the Biblical myth of the flood. Both plays thus deal with dysfunction and abnormality in the relationship between father and son. This dysfunction is interpreted as the main cause of disturbance, touching on the Freudian idea of the importance of heritage and that of childhood trauma. Thus, the plays describe a paralyzed and diseased world which is in need of spiritual regeneration.

Sam Shepard's Buried Child recalls the myth of Oedipus. The relationship between Dodge and Tilden is thus a prefiguring of the Oedipus myth. The plot of the play is structured around the dark, buried secret of the family. The audience is slowly introduced to the madness of the family through Vince and his girlfriend Shelly who come to visit Vince's grandfathers. The madness is already prefigured when the family does not recognize Vince. It is only Halie that eventually recognizes him as Tilden's son. Soon as the atmosphere becomes more and more strained and the tension builds, the core of the family' madness is disclosed. Thus, the past incestuous relationship between Tilden and his mother is just part of the dark secret that erodes the sanity of the family. Moreover, Vince and Shelly soon find out about the long repressed and denied murder that has encumbered the family: Halie and Tilden's love had bred a child who was killed by Dodge and buried in the house's garden. Tilden is now a middle-aged man who nevertheless has the mind of a child. His relationship with his father is a reflection of the Oedipus myth: Dodge's jealousy of the incestuous relationship between Halie and Tilden alters the normal father and son relation. At the same time, Tilden's immaturity makes him still dependant on his father's will. Interestingly, when speaking about his father Tilden uses his name rather than calling him 'father'. The dysfunction is thus rooted in the Tilden's attempt to usurp his father's place. Moreover, this explains the fact that he cannot mature and become a man.

The play hints at the need for spiritual regeneration in many ways. Thus, food appears frequently in the text in various forms, as a hint for the need of spiritual nurture. In the present state of things, the corrupted relationship between father and son point to degeneration and corruption. The corpse of the buried child which later is unearthed by Tilden is symbolic for corruption and degeneration. Significantly, Tilden seems to be drawn to the place where the child was buried and keeps digging for something. He first comes back to the house with an armful of corn. Dodge's violent reaction alludes to the state of denial and repression in which the family is enveloped: "There is no corn out in back! There hasn't been any here since 1935!"(Shepard, 10) Vince's return to the family house is also important: Vince is Tilden's son, the lawful son who is still alive, while the buried child is Tilden's other son, the symbol of sin and decline.

Halie is the only one in the family who seems to want to remember while Dodge is unable to cope with the feelings of shame and guilt: "I had a son once but we buried him." You shut up about that! You don't know anything about that."(Shepard, 25) Tilden seems to be under Dodge's tyranny and tries to keep the secret of the murdered baby. However, because he is spiritually immature he is won over by Shelly who lets him touch her fur coat and who coaxes him like a child. Thus, he tells the secret, significantly adding that she would not understand it: "TILDEN: If I told you something you wouldn't understand it. SHELLY: Like what? TILDEN: Like a baby. Like a tiny little baby.... If I told you you'd make me give your coat back. SHELLY: I won't. I promise. Tell me. TILDEN: I can't. Dodge won't let me. SHELLY: He won't hear you. it's okay. TILDEN: We had a baby. He did. Dodge did.... Little baby. Dodge killed it.... Dodge drowned it."(Shepard, 33) Thus, the drama is indeed difficult to digest precisely because of its pathological significance. Tilden is both a child and a father at the same time. Moreover, at a certain point he had usurped his father place, thus altering the normal situation. The abnormality of the situation is described by Dodge when the final disclosure of the terrible secret occurs. He alludes to the fact that the family had actually tried to pretend that the Tilden's child was Dodge's son: "DODGE... Halie has this kid. This baby boy.... This one hurt real bad. Almost killed her, but she had it anyway. It lived, see. It lived. It wanted to grow up in this family.... It wanted to pretend that I was its father. She [Halie] wanted me to believe in it. Even when everyone around us knew. Everyone. All our boys knew. Tilden knew."(Shepard, 54) Dodge hints at the unlawful usurpation of the child who wanted to pretend he was a normal part of the family. The situation is even more unsettling since the very chain of generation is broken by the incest that changes the roles of the father and son. The family resorts thus to denial and the attempt to bury the child and the secret of the mistake with it: "HALIE: You shut up! Bradley, make him shut up! BRADLEY: I can't. DODGE: Tilden was the one who knew. Better than any of us.... We couldn't let a thing like that continue.... It made everything we'd accomplished look like it was nothin'. Everything was can celled out by this one mistake. This one weakness. SHELLY: So you killed him? DODGE: I killed it. I drowned it. Just like the runt of the litter. Just drowned it."(Shepard, 54) the circle of degeneration however was already begun and there can be no possible redemption for it. The sin corrupts the relationships between the other members of the family as well. Halie's role as a mother is also altered. Although she attempts at times to seem like the matron of the house and jests flirtatiously, her role as a mother is perverted: "HALIE: What in the name of Judas Priest is going on in this home...you can't leave this house for a second without the Devil blowing though the front door!"(Shepard, 35) at the end, the secret is unearthed but there is no actual respite or redemption. Tilden mourns for the dead child, failing to recognize Vince, thus pointing to the continuation of abnormality. The play thus penetrates deep into the psychological drama of a family and reveals the serious spiritual degeneration that took over the world.

The same abnormal relationship is formed between Noah and Seth in Freedomland. This time, the play hints at the Biblical myth of the flood which seems at first sight to imply the idea of regeneration and spiritual rebirth. However, this only makes the actual plot be even more ironic. On the one hand, the relationship between Seth and Noah rather alludes to degeneration than to sanity. Moreover, the title of the play is a hint to American Dream of… READ MORE

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