The Narrator and Tyler Durden

Between psychology and cinema, Freud’s ideas of the ego and the id, as well as the Oedipus complex, have been subtlety, yet extensively, used in many films throughout the industry’s history.  In the film Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), Fincher uses Freud’s ideas from The Ego and the Id to exhibit character development and the relationships between the narrator (Jack [Edward Norton]), Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), and Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter).

Jack, an automobile company employee, suffers from insomnia, and is advised by his doctor to go to support groups, where Jack finds emotional comfort in people who have physical and mental sicknesses he doesn’t have.  He’s eventually disturbed by Marla, an impostor such as himself.  Jack meets Tyler on a plane trip home and befriends him. He arrives at his apartment, which has been destroyed by explosives, and eventually stays at Tyler’s place.  They start a fight behind the bar, and after having multiple fights, they attract a crowd of men and start a “fight club.”  Tyler becomes sexually involved with Marla and tells Jack to never mention anything about him to Marla.  As more fight clubs emerge, Tyler starts “Project Mayhem,” an anti-corporate/materialist terrorist organization.  Eventually, Jack finds out that Tyler is part of his psyche and is everything Jack could never be.  Fight Club displays, after deeper analysis of the film, the Oedipus complex between Jack, Tyler, and Marla.  Scenes portraying the characteristics of this complex include the first meditation session Jack attends, the bits of scenes at Tyler’s house showing Jack’s frustration towards Marla and Tyler’s sexual intercourse, and the final scene where Jack “kills” Tyler.

The Narrator (Jack)

Even before we meet Tyler or Marla, we find Jack at one of his many support groups, engaged in a meditation session.  As part of the meditation, Jack steps into his cave where he finds his “power animal:” a penguin.  In a sexual and animalistic mindset, a penguin can’t fly, which makes it castrated from the majority of birds that do.  Women, similar to penguins and their inability to fly, are, in a sense, also castrated.  The penguin is found in the cave where Jack is meditating.  Since the penguin can be related to a woman, the cave becomes a feminist object and symbolizes the uterus.  Later on during another mediation session, Jack finds Marla in the cave instead of the penguin.  Therefore, Jack’s power animal is Marla, who in turn becomes Jack’s mother figure.

Marla Singer

Fast forward later into the movie, and we find bits of scenes where Tyler and Marla are engaged in fierce sexual intercourse, and Jack is very frustrated with the noise from said sex.  The issue of the intercourse becomes more prominent when Jack glances into Tyler’s bedroom and briefly witnesses the crazy sex Tyler and Marla are having.  It is during this moment the Oedipus complex comes into fruition:  Jack sees Marla, his mother figure, having sex with Tyler, the father figure as well as Jack’s id, of whom he possesses the sexual drive and passions absent from Jack’s personality.  Jack, without realizing it, becomes jealous of Tyler and sees him as an obstacle between Marla and himself.  Up to this point, Jack relates with Tyler and seeks to be like him and, in turn, rejects Marla.  Now, after seeing their sexual intercourse, he unconsciously seeks revenge on Tyler while seeking help and comfort from Marla.  

Tyler Durden

Jack’s revenge on Tyler is fully realized in the final scene, when Tyler and Jack are in a skyscraper overlooking the credit card corporate buildings that have been rigged with explosives, which were planted by Project Mayhem.  Tyler has beaten up Jack to near-death and exhibits a dominating figure over him, courtesy of his strong, masculine personality lacking in Jack’s ego.  For the first time, Jack realizes he has control over his id, Tyler, and mentally takes the gun out of Tyler’s hand.  By shooting himself through his cheek, he kills Tyler and regains complete control over his psyche, thus completing his revenge against Tyler.  After being reunited with Marla, who was captured by members of Project Mayhem, the ideal relationship between the child and mother figure is realized when Jack takes hold of Marla’s hand.  Jack takes the place of Tyler’s father figure to be with the mother figure he sought for throughout the entire story.  

FIght Club clearly demonstrates the Oedipus complex in action through the characterizations of Jack, Tyler, and Marla.  From analyzing these select scenes, Fight Club can be interpreted as a fictional, intensified study of Freud’s complex.



By Jonathan Earley
Written for Film Philosophy college course