Relationships in Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man Reveal the Electra Complex

Sigmund Freud's well-known theory of the Oedipus complex "explain[s] the maturation of the infant boy through identification with the father and desire for the mother" ("Oedipus complex"). Perhaps less well-known is the female counterpart to this theory, the Electra complex. The theory, developed by Freud and coined by psychiatrist Carl Jung in reference to a character of Greek mythology, asserts that a girl is originally attached to her mother, but becomes attached to her father during the phallic stage of Freudian development and hopes that she will become pregnant by him. A ramification of this development is the development of fierce hostility towards her mother ("Electra complex"). Though not the biological father of any children in the novel, detective Nick Charles finds himself in the middle of such a conflict in Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man. The Electra complex rears its ugly head with Nick and Mimi as parental figures of twenty year-old Dorothy as she experiences this dramatic stage in Freudian development.