Oedipus the King
Several other critics and scholars have noted the plotline of "Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker" is modeled after "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, borrowing the themes of adoption and incestual yearning from a mother to her son. Muir writes that when Billy eventually murders Cheryl in self-defense, he impales her with a tire iron—a phallic symbol—and that, after the struggle, her dead body collapses around his in what resembles a sexual position.