Oedipus Rex was told by an oracle early in his life that he would kill his father and mate with his mother. Despite his best attempts to avoid this fate, he fails. Marty McFly might be the 1980s Oedipus.
At the beginning of Back to the Future [1985], Marty McFly is shown as a somewhat typical high school student. It is not clear how his fellow students feel about him. He has a girlfriend and fronts a band, but he never seems to mention any friends other than an eccentric scientist in his 60s. While his family seems generally stable, his mother drinks too much, his mid-twenties older brother is stuck in a fast food job, and his 20 year old sister is hopelessly single. Then there’s his father. George McFly works as an underling at an office where the high school bully is his superior and continues to exert his dominance over him even thirty years after graduation. Presumably the only reason George ever attracted a woman is by getting hit by a car whereby the driver’s daughter falls for the victim. Marty does not want to grow up to be a boring wimp without any dreams like his father.
After going back in time to 1955, Marty jeopardizes his own existence by instinctively saving his father from getting hit by a car. Conversely, Oedipus kills his father, the King, during a traffic dispute involving chariots. These occurrences are the first catastrophes in their lives. While Oedipus starts to fulfill his fate, Marty begins to unravel his. Neither realizes it at the time. Marty is taken in by the driver where he becomes the new object of desire for his mother. Oedipus soon wins the crown and the hand of the Queen
(his birth-mother).
Marty then consults with his own oracle and realizes the damage he has done. Unlike Oedipus’s selfish motives, Marty’s troubles result from good intentions. This difference may serve as the basis for how each individuals stories end. Oedipus does not know that he was adopted. He thinks his efforts to cheat fate were successful until he discovers the woman he married and the man he killed were his true parents. When he learns the truth of his actions, he gouges out his eyes: never to see again. When it appears Marty’s plans failed, he begins to vanish: never to be seen again. Fortunately, George’s knockout punch changed his passive demeanor.
It is interesting to note that Marty’s success was not due to his own scheming. His plan to have his father win the heart of his mother is doomed to fail. Marty was clearly not going to be able to upset his mother enough to justify George’s entrance as a savior. Even if the plan did go as they expected, it is likely that George’s faux courage would not have been enough to keep the admiration of his would-be future wife. Without genuine pity from her or genuine gumption from him, the relationship would have failed. Only through a true change in personality is George able to become the man he dreams of being.
Ultimately, Marty McFly really does not change much during the course of the movie. Other than a new found respect for his father and mother, his life is not all that different when he returns to 1985. Sure his family members lead healthier lives (and he has his own truck), but his place in the universe has remained the same. Marty’s development is only apparent immediately after his family is preserved through the kiss on the dance floor. It is here that Marty (mostly) successfully rocks out in front of strangers and gets a little closer to his dream of being a rock star. This breakthrough could be a direct result of his father’s new way of life, but it is not clear. Perhaps fate cannot easily be avoided without a time machine and an electric guitar.
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