Introduction to Phaedra

Some notes on Racine's tragedy, Phaedra:

Background:  This play seems filled with

• artifice and formality;

• characters who make pronouncements about their feelings in blank verse, with no comic relief, which often proves to be forbidding reading indeed.

• characters who do not invite easy familiarity and identification with modern audiences.

• difficult passages.

 

But all is not lost. We, of course, are to look at them and to learn from these characters. That is very much what the seventeenth dramatic conventions were all about--to LEARN-- whether the dramas were comedies or tragedies. They can shed light on the conflicts of love and virtue and our own time and experience.  Several aspects of the play aim at this "enlightenment."

The dialogue:

One of the forbidding elements of this play is the stilted way that everybody talks. Probably, however, it is significant that the formality of the language and meter is a balancing counterpoint for the chaos of the characters' emotions. If you read some of the speeches aloud, you can probably "hear" the control--to the people of the age, an affirmation of the possibility of restored human order. Nice to think that we could accomplish that, or even that feeling, don't you think? Notice that the ending of the play clearly announces the possibility of this hope coming true.

Responsibility for choices:

In addition to the language shedding light on the conflicts of love and virtue, Phaedra's speeches deserve some attention. Notice that those start by characterizing her love of Hippolytus as "My ills"--an emphasis on pain, misery, evil. All the imagery emphasizes war and sickness as do all the metaphors in the play. She sees herself as helpless ("Venus fastens on her helpless prey"). Is she? This is not, of course, the kind of question that has a pre-established answer, but I would encourage you to examine this question for yourselves. In other words, where IS the responsibility for her own and other people's suffering?

Moral responsibility:

If you believe that Phaedra's love has overcome her with no possibility for her to resist, is she to be held responsible for her further acts, for confessing her love to Hippolytus and condoning Oenone's terrible lie about him? How does one determine human responsibility in a world governed by gods and goddesses? Are we to take these deities simply as projections of human feelings? If so, Phaedra is responsible. In that case, does she become villain rather than victim? The problem of moral responsibility is a powerful issue in the play, as in our lives.

One way to think about this problem is to compare our modern tendency to see criminals as "sick" rather than wicked, like ourselves—formed by our heredity and environment rather than our wills. For no matter how much we blame our parents or our surroundings for what's wrong with us, we are left with a little feeling that it's all our fault. So is Phaedra.

Common sense:

Notice that when Oenone speaks, she speaks with the voice of "common sense."  All of her common-sense advice proves to be fatally wrong. Why does common sense seem altogether irrelevant to the character's real problems? This play seems to insist that human dilemmas must be understood, not in pragmatic terms, but in moral terms. Oenone does not think primarily about right and wrong; Phaedra tries to, but often fails. Yet right and wrong remain the crucial issues of this drama.

Virtue:                 

 To think of "right and wrong" is to bring up the whole thing of "virtue," a characteristic that is obviously Hippolytus' defining quality.

He knows himself to be good, and he believes that goodness is sufficient protection. He imagines that the innocent must triumph. Another way that this play sheds light on our dilemma is to show that, unfortunately, he inhabits a corrupt world, as do we. He is also wrong about something else: his own virtue involves ignoring the claims and feelings of other people. What's more, Oenone values the reputation of virtue more than virtue itself. She is wrong too: neither honor nor virtue is sufficient in itself.

Emotion versus Reason:

At the heart of the dilemma is human sexual feeling--yes, in the seventeenth century! Sexuality appears to be the primary source of human vulnerability: it gets Theseus into trouble; it kills Phaedra and Hippolytus; it makes Aricia miserable. It seems to lie outside the control of reason--a consideration when we say that reason can be used ideally to solve our problems. In addition, issues of sexuality seem to be associated with issues of power--actual and potential sexual alliances literally affect government, complex patterns of dominance and submission. What light do these ideas shed on our modern human dilemmas?

Timeless questions:

Finally, what about the play's ending? Do you believe the reconciliation that Theseus proposes? How do you feel about Phaedra's last word, "purity"? Does her suicide validate or invalidate her claim?

Obviously, there is no "right" answer to any of these questions. However, such questions do reveal that the problems which engaged the attention of audiences of Racine's day remain dilemmas that concern us all, even though we probably put them in much less elevated language.*

*Portions Adapted from The Instructor's Guide to The Norton Anthology: World Masterpieces, 6th ed.

 

More Questions to Consider on Phaedra

Racine's Phaedra, a play with no comic relief, may be a difficult play to read with all of its formality and artifice.  Characters who speak of their feelings in blank verse and who seem to have little in common with 20th century characters can be formidable. Actually, however, we are to look at and to learn from these characters who are involved in conflicts of love and virtue, just as we may be. To have a deeper look at the tragedy, consider the following questions:

1.       Neo-Classical literature often revived mythological events, personalities, and allusions.  Consider how they are used in this tragedy even though the play is written in a Christian age, by a devoutly Christian writer.

2.       Recount each instance of violent behavior in the play and tell how its handling is evidence of the neoclassic dramatist technique.

3.       Consider the theme of “reason versus passion” in the play, examining it in terms of every major character in the drama: Phaedra, Theseus, Oenone, Hippolytus . . .

4.       In the Euripidean version of Phaedra, Hippolytus’s extreme chastity brings about his death.  In Racine's Phaedra Hippolytus's excessive innocence brings about his death.   (He firmly believes that innocence was its own best defense and that truth would inevitably come out and that he need do nothing himself to defend his cause.)  Both authors seem to be suggesting that an excess of some virtues may be as harmful as vice.   Discuss this notion as applied to Hippolytus and one other character of your choice.

5.       Define the literary term "confidant" (feminine, "confidante") and discuss the usefulness of the confidante/confidant in Phaedra.

6.       Discuss the results of Phaedra's passion on Oenone, Theseus, Aricia, Hippolytus, and herself.

7.       Defend the idea that Phaedra is fundamentally a virtuous person resisting the desperation of the abyss.

8.       Although Hippolytus feels the larger shadow of his heroic father, in what ways do you believe the son to "outshine" his father (use examples from the play)?

9.       On the surface, Aricia and Phaedra are parallel characters, two women in love with the same man.  Explain how they are actually antithetical.

10.  Discuss the idea that Oenone is the victim of an overwhelming passion.

 

 

Revised from a site originally found at http://english.tyler.cc.tx.us/engl2333nbyr/phaedraintro.htm; link was broken as of 7/29/01.