PSYCHOANALYTICAL CRITICISM OF OLA ROTIMIS THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME INTRODUCTION The theories and practice of Sigmund

Freud, an Austrian psychologist and neurolo gist (1856-1939) created an entirely new approach to the understanding of human personality. Through his skill as a scientist, physician, and writer, Freud comb ined his own observation and study to propound the theory of psychoanalysis. Acc ording to Bressler (1994), Freud believed that the unresolved conflicts that give rise to any neurosis constitute the stuff of literature. A work of literaturewas the external expression of the authors minds. Since its introduction, this theory has been instrumental to literary critics in analyzing, not just the author, bu t the characters portrayed in a literary work to reveal the motivations and inte nsions behind their actions. Using this approach has enabled literary critics to dive beneath the surface level of a text and ascertain its true meaning. This assignment undertakes a psychoanalytic criticism of Ola Rotimis The Gods Are Not To Blame. It gives the highlights of the psychoanalytic or Freudian theory and applies the tenets of this critical theory to the analysis of the central ch aracter of the text, Odewale. The aim is to reveal the how the complex interacti on between the Oedipus complex, the psychic zones and the unconscious is dramati zed in The Gods Are Not To Blame. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY THE PSYCHIC ZONES The effort to clarify the bewildering number of interrelated observations uncove red by psychoanalytic exploration led to the development of a model of the struc ture of the psychic system. In his theory, Freud outlines three psychic zones de signated as the id, ego, and superego. THE ID The first psychic zone is concerned with the sexual and aggressive tendencies th at arise from the body, as distinguished from the mind. Freud gave the name id to these unconscious drives. The id knows nothing of morality or reality. It seeks only to gratify the instinctual drives which claim immediate satisfaction and op erates solely according to the pleasure principle. The id tries to gratify these urges by any way it can. Freud held that the biological drives of a young perso n are often frustrated by delays and restricted by the demands of parents and ot her older members of the family. As time passes, the demands of the community or society also become important obstacles to id gratification. THE EGO In adapting to the environment, the child begins to acquire a second psychic zon e, the ego, or set of conscious perceptions, memories, and thoughts that enable th e person to deal effectively with reality. The ego is the domain of such functio ns as perception, thinking, and motor control that can accurately assess environ mental conditions. To defend itself against unacceptable impulses, the ego devel ops defense mechanisms. These include repression, the exclusion of impulses from conscious awareness; projection, the process of ascribing to others one s own u nacknowledged desires; and reaction formation, the establishment of a pattern of behavior directly opposed to a strong unconscious need. The ego obeys the reali ty principle. In many cases the ego reduces the conflict between the childs insti nctive desires and reality by at least partially fulfilling the id impulses thro ugh socially acceptable behavior. Often, however, the conflict disappears on the conscious level as unfulfilled impulses are repressed into the unconscious mind . THE SUPEREGO As the child also grows older, he absorbs the teachings of family and society; h e develops a superego, or conscience, that frequently conflicts with the drives of the id. Id impulses become unacceptable, more often because of prohibitions i mposed on the individual by the parents and others. The totality of these demand

s and prohibitions constitutes the major content of the third psychic zone, the superego. In this the function of which is to control the ego in accordance with the internalized standards of parental figures. If the demands of the superego are not fulfilled, the person may feel shame or guilt. THE MENTAL PROCESES Another important component of the psychoanalytic theory involves the three ment al processes: the conscious, the unconscious and the pre-conscious processes. Fr eud believed that the unconscious psychiatric processes follow laws different fr om those that govern conscious experience. Under the influence of the unconsciou s, thoughts and feelings that belong together may be shifted or displaced out of context; two disparate ideas or images may be condensed into one; thoughts may be dramatized in the form of images rather than expressed as abstract concepts; and certain objects may be represented symbolically by images of other objects, although the resemblance between the symbol and the original object may be vague or farfetched. The laws of logic, indispensable for conscious thinking, do not apply to these unconscious mental productions. On the other hand, the conscious mental process involves the mental activities w hich an individual is directly aware of. The preconscious is defined as that lat ent mental activity based on an individuals early experiences as a child that usu ally directly or indirectly influences an individuals actions. A basic assumption of Freudian theory is that the unconscious conflicts in an in dividuals psyche involve instinctual impulses, or drives, that originate in chil dhood. According to Freud, by the time of adulthood, the child has stored many p ainful memories of repressed sexual desires, anger and guilt in his unconscious. Since the unconscious and conscious are part of the same psyche, this hidden ca che of repressed desires and wishes continues to affect the conscious in the for m of inferiority feelings, guilt, irrational thoughts, dreams and nightmares. Ad ult sexuality, Freud believes, is an end product of a complex process of develop ment, beginning in childhood, involving a variety of body functions or areas (or al, anal, and genital zones), and corresponding to various stages in the relatio n of the child to adults, especially to parents. THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX Oedipus Complex, in psychoanalysis refers to a sons largely unconscious sexual at traction toward his mother accompanied by jealousy toward his father. The term O edipus complex, derived from the Greek legend of Oedipus. Freud thought that the Oedipus complex was the most important event of a boys childhood and had a great effect on his subsequent adult life. Occurring at about four to six years of ag e, the child at this stage of development becomes capable of an emotional attach ment to the parent of the opposite sex that is similar to the adult s relationsh ip to a mate; the child simultaneously reacts as a rival to the parent of the sa me sex. Freud claimed that in nearly all cases the boy represses the desire for his mother and the jealousy toward his father. As a result of this unconscious e xperience, Freud believed, a boy with an Oedipus complex feels guilt and experie nces strong emotional conflicts. The female equivalent for this complex is the p enis envy. PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM OF THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME Ola Rotimis The Gods Are Not To Blame is an adaptation of Sophocles Oedipus Rex, a Greek tragedy. The play dramatizes mans helplessness in the hand of fate or the struggle between humanity and the divine. When Odewale is born, the Ifa Priest d ivines for him a terrible future that he will kill his father and marry his mothe r. In an attempt to avert this tragedy, King Adetusa and Queen Ojuola decide to ki ll the unlucky messenger of the gods. The baby is handed over to Gbonka, the kings messenger, to be killed in the evil grove. Gbonka refrains from killing the chi ld out of pity but instead, gives him to Master Ogundele, who raises the child a s his own. From this point, the action of the play moves in inexorably towards i

ts climax. All attempts by Odewale to distance himself from his destiny only ser ve to relentlessly lead him down the path to tragedy. Like Oedipus of Sophocles, Odewale is a tragic hero who is driven to his doom, b oth by his own actions and forces beyond his control. Rotimi portrays him as a c omplex man sensitive, caring, noble, and patriotic a man who has the highest este em for his tribe. Odewales fatal flaw however lies in his reckless and impulsive anger. It is due to this trait that Alaka calls him the scorpion that must not be vexed and says: I am glad to see that your youthful, hot temper is still with you, my brother. Odewales fierce temper often impels him to act precipitously. This negative flaw in his character can be interpreted as psychotic, a failure of his ego to adequa tely suppress the instinctively violent reactions of the id. Thus in several ins tances when he is enraged in the text, Odewale responds aggressively in fury. It is in one of such instances that he commits the crime of patricide, when the ol d man, his father, dares to insult his tribe I can bear the insults to myself, br other, but to call my tribe a bush tribe. When viewed from the psychoanalytic perspective, the conflict in Odewales persona lity becomes obvious. A stranger to Kutuje, he arrives to find the village grief -stricken under the oppression of a neighboring community of Ikolu. After conque ring the enemy, he is made king. When a new threat arrives in the form of a curs e on the city, Odewale promises to find the culprit, unaware that he himself was the killer. In fact, the whole play revolves around Odewales ignorance of his true identity. Because he believes that Master Ogundele and his wife are his parents, he concei ves himself as a son of the tribe of Ijekun Yemoja and thus an alien in the land o f Kutuje. Odewale does not choose to kill his father and marry his mother but th e text reveals that he chooses to become a pugnacious defender of his tribe. The irony of his tribalist violence is that is that it creates his later predicamen t as an inter- tribal hybrid. Thus, in assuming the role of the defender of his p eople he lays himself open to disaster. Also, Odewales awareness of his anomalous status as an exalted outsider makes him extremely suspicious of his subjects. He is furious at Baba Fakunles claim that he is the cause of villages problem. When he learns of the manner of King Adetus as death, he begins to suspect his subjects of regicide. In this way, Rotimi expl ores the character of individuals who project their fears and suppressed and una cknowledged desires on other people. But although he initially views the accusations of murderer and bedsharer as indic ations of intrigue and jealousy by Aderopo, Odewale is finally forced to confron t the secret of who he really is. He persists with the self-examination, despite attempts by the other characters to conceal the truth. This is similar to the p rocess of psychoanalysis. As psychological insight dawns, he is confronted with the bitter truth of who he really is a man who has killed his father and has mar ried his mother. It is at this point that the superego seats in judgment. With t he ensuing guilt and shame, Odewale plucks out his eyes to fulfill his earlier o ath and departs into exile. An important component of psychoanalysis that becomes in evident in The Gods Are Not To Blame involves the Oedipus complex. Freud claimed that in nearly all cas es, the boy represses sexual desire for his mother and the jealousy toward his f ather. The result of this unconscious experience is that a boy with an Oedipus c omplex feels guilt and experiences strong emotional conflicts. Since the term Oe dipus complex is derived from the Greek legend of Oedipus, Rotimis adaptation of the story to the Nigerian context dramatizes the life of a hero whose actions, t

hough unconscious, transcends the realm of childhood fantasy to that of reality. The implication therefore is that the crime of patricide that Odewale commits i s thus motivated, not by the old kings insult to the Ijekun tribe, but by Odewales unconscious desire to remove the father figure to pave way for his subsequent p ossession of his mother. This is the ultimate expression of his repressed oedipa l desires. In killing his father and marrying his mother, Odewale epitomizes the true essence of the Oedipus myth. CONCLUSION Conflict arises in a persons conscious mind when one set of beliefs impacts adver sely on another area of belief, causing emotional suffering felt as disappointme nt, anger, or frustration. These conflicts are retained in the unconscious. Life becomes an attempt to establish equilibrium between drives, conflicts, and real ity, The Gods Are Not To Blame is a dramatization of a tragic heros futile effort s to find such equilibrium and the resulting conflicts which lead to his doom. A lthough the play centers is a parable of the struggle between humanity and divin ity, Freud believed that by understanding the crucial events and fantasy wishes of childhood, psychoanalysis could shed understanding on later adult character d evelopment with its attendant conflicts and neurotic symptoms.