Comparing Mills 'And Oedipus Wrecks'

The 1989 film, known as the New York Stories, consists of three short movies centered around New York. The last installment of the short, which is around forty minutes, is named Oedipus Wrecks. Oedipus Wrecks is about a man identified as Sheldon Mills, who is a lawyer, and his overbearing mother, Sadie Millstein. Always seeming to complain about his mother to his therapist, he states, in one session, that he wishes she would just disappear. Ironically, when he, his mother, his fiancé, and his fiancé’s children go to a magic show, she does just that after being placed in a box, disappearing as she is supposed to, but not reappearing. At first Mills is angry, but after a week or so, he feels liberated. To his horror, however, she returns as an

In both stories, the main character is faced with several difficulties to attempt to solve their problems. Mills is faced with his critical mother when attempting to marry, while Oedipus deals with Laius and the Sphinx on his way to Thebes. They each have help from an ally, for Mills has his therapist, and Oedipus has his adoptive parents who raise him in place of his actual parents. Mills and Oedipus both go to an oracle, or a psychic, for advice, both who seem to do nothing for the pair. The psychic, Treva, of Mills tries to help him for weeks, but to no avail, admitting that she does not really know what she is doing. Oedipus’s oracle reveals a prophecy, but does not aid him any further in regards to who his actual parents are, which results in the serious downfall of Oedipus. For Oedipus, as the prophecy was told, he married his mother unbeknownst to him. Similarly, Mills, after his fiancé leaves him, proposes to Treva, who is in a lot of ways like his mother. The main difference between the two features is that Mills had a somewhat happy ending, where he ended up getting approved by his mother to marry, while Oedipus exiled himself after Jocasta, his wife and mother, murdered