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    Phèdre
    Phèdre
    Phèdre
    Ebook86 pages1 hour

    Phèdre

    By Jean Racine

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    About this ebook

    Based on Euripides' Hippolytus, this play by one of France's greatest playwrights is a magnificent example of character exposition. When the title character, Hippolytus' stepmother, receives false information that her husband, Theseus, is dead, Phèdra reveals a passionate love for her stepson — an act that eventually spells doom for both characters.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateOct 23, 2017
    ISBN9780486159294
    Phèdre
    Author

    Jean Racine

    Jean Racine, né le 22 décembre 1639 à La Ferté-Milon et mort le 21 avril 1699 à Paris, est un dramaturge et poète français. Issu d'une famille de petits notables de la Ferté-Milon et tôt orphelin, Racine reçoit auprès des « Solitaires » de Port-Royal une éducation littéraire et religieuse rare.

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    Reviews for Phèdre

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    • 5/5
      A Greek tragedy by Racine, a web of interlocking and tragic loves and misunderstandings propels this play from beginning to end. Although I enjoyed Andromache more, this was also a pleasure from beginning to end. And like Andromache, added greater psychological depth and complexity to characters caught in what would otherwise appear to be the inevitably unfolding clockwork gears of their fates.
    • 4/5
      Let's see: thwarted love, betrayal, implied incest, heinous lies, father-son love triangle with wife/stepmother, and a whole lot of death at the end. Um, yeah, that's the recipe for a pretty awesome story. Phaedra, married to Theseus, has always nurtured a secret love for his son, Hippolytus. When she receives news that Theseus is dead, she finally confesses her love to Hippolytus, who is in love with Aricia and is disgusted by his step-mother's advances. But, hey, guess what? Theseus isn't dead and returns just in time for all Hades to break loose . . .Soap operas have nothing on ancient Greek drama. Plus, on All My Children, you never get a half bull/half dragon sea beastie sent by Neptune to torch our hero into a crispy critter before his horses go mad, crash the chariot, and then drag him to death.
    • 4/5
      Racine's tragic dramatization of the Theseus-Phaedra myth is very classical in form and style. He reads more like a Jonsonian tragedian than a Shakespearean one. The play is full of long speeches of florid, classical language, and all of the real action in the play occurs off-stage. Still, the emotion of the main characters--Phaedra, Theseus and Hyppolitus--shines through the language and brings the characters to life. The more minor characters like Phaedra's maid are less well drawn (a weakness in this play because Phaedra's maid is the catalyst for much of the language). I enjoyed the play well enough to seek out other works by Racine.
    • 4/5
      I had a hard time with the inevitability of Phaedra's love for Hippolytus - I'm not a believer in love that you can't resist. This play demonstrated to me the importance of integrity. Phaedra knew what she felt was wrong - but she "gave in" to to the bad advice of her confidant and destroyed the lives of all those around her. While the story may seem old and out of touch with the modern world, I find it particularly timely given our modern inclination to just follow our desires without regard to who may get hurt.
    • 4/5
      Made me want to read more Ted Hughes. Never thought I would say that.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely hilarious modern translation (performed in NY) of a Frenchman's rendition of the Greek tragedy. Each main character has one exceptional part: Aricia, Hipplytus, Phedre, and Theseus. The story of Hippolytus' death is told very clearly relative to the Greek, with Neptune coming out of the sea after Hippolytus slays the beast.
    • 3/5
      It is stated in the introduction to Phèdre that Racine did not intend to challenge any of the conventions to playwriting with this work, but merely write the strongest possible play while adhering to the established structure of five act dramatic tragedies. Because of this, the play Phèdre by Racine and Hippolytus by Euripides are similar, not only in subject matter, but in structure as well, despite being written over 2,000 years apart. Unfortunately for Racine, this allows a direct comparison between the plays, and for me Hippolytus easily comes out on top.

      Racine makes Phèdre a longer play, focusing on the passions that are driving the characters, and adds a plotline where Hippolytus and Aricia fall in love and attempt to elope. The longer length means that things that happened in the heat of the moment in Euripides’ play (and made sense in that context) are stretched over a longer span of time (and therefore defy common-sense). Euripides’ Theseus believes the accusations against his son only when he finds a note alleging them clutched in the cold hand of his wife, who has just killed herself. In a rage, and with his wife’s suicide putting her accusations almost beyond reproach, he curses his son and seals his fate. Racine’s Theseus believes accusations brought against his son by his wife’s nurse, and holds onto them stubbornly while one character after another tells him the accusations are false. “Can nothing clear your mind of your mistake?” asks Hippolytus. Obviously not, for the sake of the story, but such a refusal does strain credulity. Racine also has characters take other actions that aren’t very believable, and his commitment to making his characters voice their motivations draws attention to just how unbelievable these actions are. Toward the end of the play Hippolytus states “[l]et us trust to Heav'n my vindication, for the gods are just.” No they aren’t, and Hippolytus should know this based on the earlier parts of the play (and nowhere is Hippolytus previously portrayed as stupid or naïve). Euripides would never have written such a nonsense and cliché line.

      The Hippolytus-Aricia subplot must have been added as a crowd-pleaser, because it adds little to the story. There are thousands of plays about forbidden romance, death separating young lovers, and everything else this plotline does, and it distracts from the play’s portrayal of a woman’s love spurned and a father harboring such rage for his son that he calls on the gods to kill him. Alicia’s introduction changes Phaedra’s actions to ones of jealousy just as much as uncontrollable passion, and thus waters down an interesting character. In general Phèdre does a disservice to the character Phaedra, giving many of the key actions to her nurse instead of having Phaedra perform them herself. It is the nurse Oenone who makes the accusations against Hippolytus, which absolves Phaedra of blame in his death but also turns her character into one doomed always to react and never to act of her own volition.

      Euripides’ take on this tale is the better one, and is one of his strongest plays. Comparatively, Phèdre is less impressive, and despite Racine’s attempt to imbue the characters with uncontrollable passion, in fact he turns them duller than they had been for the 2,000 years before him. It’s not bad, just not as good as the classic version.

    Book preview

    Phèdre - Jean Racine

    ACT I

    Scene 1. Hippolytus, Theramenes.

    HIPPOLYTUS. I have made up my mind, Theramenes.

    I am leaving this place; I am leaving beautiful Troezen.

    My idleness shames me

    because of the deadly doubt filling my heart.

    Separated from my father for more than six months,

    I know nothing of his fate.

    I do not even know the place where he hides.

    THERAMENES. My lord, where will you go to look for him?

    To placate your justified fear,

    I have already crossed the two seas Corinth separates.

    10

    I have asked about Theseus of the people on those shores

    where the Acheron disappears into Hades.

    I have visited Elis, and leaving Taenarus behind me,

    I went as far as the sea into which Icarus fell.

    With what new hope and in what happy land

    do you expect to discover the trace of his passing?

    And who can tell whether the .King your father

    wants the mystery of his absence to be known?

    and whether, when with you we fear for his life,

    that hero, at peace and concealing a new love,

    20

    is not waiting until his deceived mistress. . .

    HIPPOLYTUS. Stop, Theramenes, and show respect for Theseus.

    He has left all his youthful errors behind him

    and is not detained now by any unworthy obstacle.

    By her prayers Phèdre changed his fatal inconstancy

    and for a long time has feared no rival.

    I will be doing my duty if I look for him,

    and I shall get away from Troezen which I no longer want to

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