James Bond's Oedipus Complex

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Alex Carriere
Dr. Kenneth Jurkiewicz
BCA 525B
4 November 2013
Mothers Are Forever
Perhaps no other franchise in film history has had the cultural impact and
survivability as the James Bond series. In over 50 years, EON productions has
released 23 films starring the British secret agent, raked in over a billion dollars at
the box office, and has turned six men into worldwide stars. At first dismissed as
B­movie fare when ​Dr. No​ was released in 1962, the film series has surpassed early
expectations and become a phenomenon. However, that fact has not stopped even
contemporary critics from accusing the films of being nothing but cartoonish fun.
Despite the prevalent view, there are a handful that tend to take the films more
seriously.
In fact, recent scholars have begun to notice the subtext of many of the films.
Writers have taken note of many themes ranging from political underlying to the
rampant sado­masochism found in the films. There is, though, one particular theme
that has been popping up throughout the films since day one and seems to be the
driving force behind the James Bond character. That is, Mr. Bond’s undeniable and
raging Oedipus Complex.
Through films such as ​Goldfinger​, ​Goldeneye​, ​Skyfall, ​and others, Bond’s
complex can’t be ignored. Renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud’s classic theory is

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indisputable when Bond’s love for country and over compensation through guns,
cars, and his sexual energy are put under the microscope.
Freud’s Theory
Sigmund Freud first demonstrated his so called “Oedipus Complex” when he
wrote of the three important erogenous zones of the human body (Hall 109). The
third zone, the sexual zone, was split into two stages: the male phallic stage and the
female phallic stage (109). During the male phallic stage, Freud said, “when the
sexual urge increases, the boy’s love for his mother becomes more incestuous”
(109). During this period, the male child begins to desire possession of the mother
and “feels antagonistic toward the father” (109).
Freud believed that the male child will begin to harbor a certain fear as a
result of the Oedipus Complex. The child will begin to feel that his father will learn of
these feelings and thus will rid the child of his sexual organ (109). Freud called this
“castration anxiety” (109). In order to defend against this anxiety, the child will
begin to overcompensate by identifying with the father and adapting his male
characteristics, therefore protecting him from his father’s wrath (111­112).
The complex can be easier explained by Freud’s theory of the organization of
the personality into the Id, Ego, and the Superego (22). The Id acts as the “pleasure
principle” (22) and serves as the personality’s wish fulfillment at a very instinctual
level without regard to rationality (23). The Ego acts as the “reality principle”, that
is, it helps the Id fulfill its wish while considering the long­term benefits of doing so

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(28). Finally, the Superego acts as the moral compass (31). It strives to act in a way
that is socially acceptable based on what it is taught, rather than work for instant
gratification like the Id (31­32).
Within the Oedipal complex, the Id wants to sexually possess the mother and
destroy the father while the Ego is aware this is impossible because the father is the
superior male. The Superego then compensates by adapting the father’s
characteristics as protection and becomes aware that sexual domination of the
mother is impossible, thereby repressing the Oedipal urges.
While many of today’s scholar’s dismiss Freud’s theory, it is nonetheless
influential in modern psychology and is still culturally significant. Even the world’s
greatest spy, James Bond 007, can succumb to something as intricate as the Oedipus
Complex. Throughout all twenty­three films, viewers have seen him battle it out
with numerous father figures, try desperately to please his mother country (and in
the later films, his boss) and overcompensate to the point of absurdity.
“I Have A Slight Inferiority Complex”: Bond Competes With His Father
(​Goldfinger ​and​ Diamonds Are Forever​)
As Freud pointed out, young boys develop a rivalry with their father, whether
subconscious or not, once he begins directing his jealous emotions towards the
father. Although Bond is sans a father in the film series, his life is far from lacking
father figures. The early films call to mind ​M​ as a potential father figure, but the true

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focal point of the agent’s emotions is the very men he is fighting against. This is
especially clear in 1964’s ​Goldfinger.
The film follows Bond (Sean Connery) on his mission to take down Auric
Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) in his quest to contaminate the gold supply of Fort Knox in
order to increase the value of his own collection. Aside from the main plot,
Goldfinger and Bond’s storyline can be viewed simply as father vs. son.
The two aren’t related, and not even born of the same country, but Goldfinger
can easily fit into the father­like category. He appears to be much older than Bond
and perhaps he’s a little more worldly. Goldfinger captures Bond, yet doesn’t kill
him. He even goes so far as sharing mint juleps on the porch with the spy as he
describes his diabolical scheme. On the surface, it almost plays out as father and son
sharing lemonade as dad teaches son some valuable life lessons. The connection is
most obvious during a game of golf the two men share early in the film.
As Freud would most likely view them, sports are the ultimate
aggression­release and the most common way for males to compete, physically and
psychologically. Goldfinger brags of his fortune and prowess and makes an effort to
prove to Bond that he (the father) is superior. He has his henchman Oddjob (Harold
Sakata) throw a metal­rimmed bowler hat at a statue, decapitating it. When Bond
asks how the country club’s owner might feel, Goldfinger brags that he is the owner
of the club. Bond is competing on ​his ​turf.
The game seems amicable enough, until Bond discovers Goldfinger is
cheating. In order to stay ahead, Goldfinger has his caddy, Oddjob, place identical

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balls closer to the hole. So threatened by his “son”, “father” resorts to petty cheating
in order to assert his power.
Even before the golf match, Bond meets the beautiful Jill Masterson (Shirley
Eaton) and learns she is the paid partner of Goldfinger (although she implies
nothing sexual takes place). Within minutes of meeting her, Bond turns on his charm
and seduces her. After the successful bedding of father’s partner, father takes
revenge and murders Masterson by painting her in solid gold paint until she
asphyxiates. Goldfinger is quick to end the relationship and leave his mark of
ownership on mother.
Perhaps the most striking scene in ​Goldfinger​ is the near fulfillment of
Freud’s “fear of castration”. Captured by Goldfinger’s men, Bond is strapped to a
gold table where a laser begins to carve its way through and up to Bond’s genitals.
The sweat on the agent’s face becomes intensely visible. Clearly his greatest fear is
about to be realized. Of course, he finds his way out before it’s too late, but he was
certainly shaken by the experience.
Bond’s fierce competition with fatherly figures isn’t only evident in
Goldfinger​ but can also be seen in many other Bond films including ​Diamonds Are
Forever ​(1971), and particularly within its pre­credits sequence.
At the end of 1969’s ​On Her Majesty’s Secret Service​, James Bond (this time
played by George Lazenby)’s new wife Tracy (Diana Rigg) is brutally shot in the
head by minions of the ruthless Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas). Blofeld had
previously appeared in a handful of other Bond pictures and proved to be his

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biggest foe. The series’ next installment, ​Diamonds Are Forever​, finds Bond seeking
revenge.
Much like Goldfinger, Blofeld (here, Charles Gray) is the older man in Bond’s
life that is bent on world domination, obsessed in proving his superiority. While
Blofeld’s attempt at castrating Bond isn’t as literal as Goldfinger’s, the murder of
Bond’s only true love is at the same level. In doing so he robs Bond in the male’s
ancient right of passage: obtaining a wife.
The opening scene of ​Diamonds Are Forever​ finds Bond (Sean Connery, again)
seeking out Blofeld for revenge. After chasing him around the world, Bond discovers
Blofeld in his lair and believes he killed him. Later in the film, however, he discovers
it was only a clone. Blofeld is seemingly invincible. Perhaps the prospect of defeating
father is, indeed, impossible.
While Bond spends much of his time attempting to prove himself to the
father figures in his life, nothing proves his Oedipus Complex quite like his “mommy
issues”. As evident in 1995’s ​Goldeneye​ and especially 2012’s ​Skyfall​, Bond will stop
at nothing to protect his mother country, and the one he calls “Mum”.
“Mommy Was Very Bad”: ​Goldeneye ​and ​Skyfall
Goldeneye ​is an important turning point in the Bond series for many reasons,
one of them being it introduces actress Judi Dench to the role of ​M​, head of MI­6, a
role previously only portrayed by male actors.

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Throughout the film series, ​M ​acted as Bond’s boss and the number one in
England’s secret service. The character was, for many decades, a fairly flat character
whose main purpose seemed to be limited to briefing Bond on his next mission and
occasionally scolding him. It wasn’t until Dench took on the role that the character
became more rounded and the influence on Bond more palpable.
In ​Goldeneye​, ​M​ meets with Bond (Pierce Brosnan) in her office and
immediately sizes him up as nothing more than “​a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A
relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, [are] wasted on me”. Stern, to the point,
and a little harsh, ​M ​immediately fits the role of mother in Bond’s life. Of course,
there is the little matter of Bond referring to ​M​ as “Mum”, common British slang for
“mother”. In her appearances in the next seven Bond films, Bond’s loyalty to ​M ​is
obvious, but his twisted complex becomes hard to ignore in ​Skyfall.
The film finds MI­6 directly under attack by a former agent now named Silva
(Javier Bardem). Silva is determined to destroy ​M​ because of her past decisions,
namely allowing him to be kept prisoner by the enemy. When he attempts suicide
via a faulty cyanide capsule, he is left disfigured and broken.
Silva relates to Bond (Daniel Craig) a story of rats, captured in a drum until
they resort to cannibalism to survive. Once there are only two rats left, one must
release them to the environment where they now have only a taste for rat. The two
agents, Silva says, are the last two rats; the two survivors with a taste for blood, left
by ​M.

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Bond and Silva are like siblings here, with Silva taking on the role of sister
(his homosexual, or at least bi­sexual, inclinations are evident when he tenderly
unbuttons Bond’s shirt, not to mention his feminine tendencies in his speech
patterns and gestures). The former agent contrasts Bond’s mother obsession by
seemingly enacting Freud’s “Female Phallic Stage” in which the female child feels
already castrated once she realizes she does not posses the external genitals the
male sex does (Hall 111). She then blames the mother for her castration and
develops “penis envy” toward her father (111). The feminine counterpart to Bond’s
castration anxiety, Silva’s envy and his blame toward ​M​ forces him to find power
over her, therefore his attack on MI­6.
This dynamic is also played out in the aforementioned ​Goldeneye​, this time
between Bond (Brosnan) and former agent Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean). This time,
their home country England stands in for their mother. Bond and Trevelyan were
once partners (they were Agents 007 and 006, respectively) until Trevelyan defects
and joins Janus, a Russian Crime Syndicate. He vows revenge against England, as he
blames her for the death of his Cossack parents. Again, betrayed by mother, child
must assert himself and take revenge.
It’s very apparent that James Bond suffers from a compete Oedipal Complex,
shown in the ways in which his Id and Ego have battled it out in his quest for mother
and his clash with father. But what of the Superego’s role? Throughout the entire
film series, Bond shows no shortage of over compensation.

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“No, It’s Just the Right Size…For Me Anyway”: Bond Overcompensates
If the Bond series were known for one thing, it would be its continuous use of
stylish cars, beautiful women, and outrageous weapons. All three are universal signs
of masculinity and all of them are important to Bond in his obsession in taking on
the male role to compensate for his castration anxiety.
The most popular tool of Bond’s has always been his Aston Martin DB5, from
Goldfinger​. The car is decked out with a passenger ejector seat, radar, and a
bulletproof windscreen. It is also notable for its sexual images of high­powered
machine guns protruding from the headlights and the back dispenser that spurts out
slick oil.
It is his guns, though, that really drive home the phallic imagery. Take, for
example, the Heckler & Koch UMP9 9mm Bond (Craig) uses in 2006’s ​Casino Royale
(Cork). The heavy piece of machinery extends a good two feet from Bond’s arms as
he keeps the villainous Mr. White at bay, cowering under the agent with his back on
the ground.
The most common way Bond epitomizes the male sex can be found in his
numerous sexual conquests throughout the film series. Film critic Tim Dirks in his
website counts the amount trysts at a hefty 74 (Dirks). What’s the most striking is
the ease at which Bond seduces most of the women he sleeps with.
Within the first five minutes of ​Diamonds Are Forever​, he approaches a
woman, and although his goal here is to gain information on Blofeld’s whereabouts,
she is more than willing to sleep with him. He simply tells her, a complete stranger it

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seems, that “there’s something [he wants her] to get of [her] chest. He then
immediately undoes her bikini top with no force whatsoever.
In ​Goldfinger​, the lesbian leaning Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) claims she
is uninterested in a physical relationship with the agent. He is unmoved by this,
however, and nearly rapes her in a barn. Afterwards, Pussy is grateful and claims
she just never had the right ​man​. Such a symbol of masculinity, Bond is even able to
change the sexual identity of a woman.
Bond seems to have an intense fear of castration, perhaps not literally in this
case, but he is certainly insecure in his masculinity and overcompensates by
bedding as many women as he can and must sport large, powerful phallic tools in
his everyday life. Clearly this is his Superego’s attempt at easing the conflict of his
repressed desire to conquer his mother and his threatened attitude toward his
father.
Conclusion
James Bond, 007 is the world’s most recognizable and respected secret agent
in the world. The film series revolving around his exploits is considered the most
successful franchise in cinema history. He is manly, rugged, and intelligent; the
epitome of a man’s man. Despite his seemingly unflappability, one can see a very
strong psychological subtext in the film and begin to view him as a flawed, even
tragic, individual.

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A common theme in literature and other popular culture, the Oedipus
Complex is a fascinating and thought­provoking idea. Through Freud’s famous
theory as it pertains to his concept of the Id, Ego, and Superego, it is easy to see how
perfectly matched Bond is to the issue.
When investigating his relationships with the supervillians he battles, it is
clear that Bond is trying desperately to prove his worth against his father. His
unwavering love for country and his devotion to his boss, ​M​, is his way of satisfying
his latent urge to sexually possess his mother. Because his Superego will not allow
this and is aware of father’s superiority over him, Bond overcompensates by using
powerful, phallic tools in competition with his so­called father figures, and conquers
nearly every attractive woman that comes across his path. Like the classic Oedipus
Rex, Bond is stuck in complex situation that defines nearly every decision and action
in his life.

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Works Cited
Casino Royale​. Dir. Martin Campbell. Perf. Daniel Craig. 2006. MGM, 2006. DVD.
Cork, John, and Collin Stutz. ​James Bond Encyclopedia​. New York: DK Publishing,
2007. 236. Print.
Diamonds Are Forever​. Dir. Guy Hamilton. Perf. Sean Connery and Charles Gray.
1971. MGM, 2006. DVD.
Dirks, Tim. "James Bond FIlms." ​Filmsite.org​. Ed. Tim Dirks. AMC, 2013. Web. 30 Oct.
2013. <http://www.filmsite.org/series­jamesbond0.html>.
Goldeneye​. Dir. Martin Campbell. Perf. Pierce Brosnan and Judi Dench. 1995. MGM,
2006. DVD.
Goldfinger​. Dir. Guy Hamilton. Perf. Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, and Honor Blackman.
1964. MGM, 2006. DVD.
Hall, Calvin S. ​A Primer of Freudian Psychology​. 28th ed. New York: New American
Library, 1979. 22­112. Print.

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On Her Majesty's Secret Service​. Dir. Guy Hamilton. Perf. George Lazenby, Diana Rigg,
and Telly Savalas. 1969. MGM, 2006. DVD.
Skyfall​. Dir. Sam Mendes. Perf. Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, and Javier Bardem. MGM,
2006. Blu­Ray.