In Oedipus Rex Sophocles portrays with dramatic impact the conflicts associated with the succession of generations. He has much to say about the crises of adolescence. A re-examination of the Oedipus story as presented by Sophocles in his tragedy offers a fresh look at these problems.

The encounters of the youthful Oedipus with his father, Laius, at the crossroads, and with the Sphinx at the gates of Thebes, are viewed as portraying the young adult in conflict with both the internal and external parental representations. The problems arising from the mutually aggressive situation between parents and their children are discussed. The threat to the family and society posed by the unconscious filicidal as well as the more well-known parricidal attitudes is examined.