is also the Father and the Son. Jeffrey witnesses this abuse hiding in Dorothy's closet. According to Tim Dirks "in a symbolic sense, Jeffreyas a childillicitly spies on the scene of seduction that his parents are having sexual intercourseDorothy ('Mommy') and Frank ('Daddy' or 'Baby')" ("Blue Velvet (1986)", http://www.filmsite.org/blue.html). If we accept Dirks' suggestion then we need to consider Jeffrey's sexual attraction towards Dorothy as a sign of a hidden Oedipus complex. Frank's obsession with the song "In Dreams" may also have a Freudian significance, however, it may also be seen to imply that Jeffrey's journey is not into reality but into his dreams, which belong to the realm of the subconscious. The latter possibility is also suggested by the way Lynch shows us Jeffrey leaving Dorothy's apartment house after the first unsettling night then cuts straight to him waking up in his bed, his mind filled with random, distorted flashbacks. The night of the "joyride" ends in a similar fashion. Returning home after being brutally beaten by Frank reciting "In Dreams", Jeffrey sits on his bed crying like someone who has just woken up from a nightmare. Yet again, the flashbacks appear so as to resemble the way the mind processes images in a dream. However, it is important to note that while in the first set of flashbacks it is Frank who is brutalizing Dorothy in the second set it is Jeffrey doing the same. He wakes up to find evil in himself, to find that Frank is right when he says, "You're like me". Since this last encounter with Frank almost cost his lifeor his soulJeffrey decides to take action. He needs to distance himself from the underworld which is threatening to swallow him up and anchor himself firmly in the reality of Lumberton. He receives the moral support of the law from Detective Williams and the emotional support of love from Sandy. His superego thus strengthened he can resist the temptations of the dark side and is read...
