Phèdre by Jean Racine and the Phaedra myth

1/ Wouldn’t you agree it’s a good idea that I, instead of going straight from Molière (1622–1673) to his contemporary Racine (1639–1699), read Racine’s greatest play now when I’m already acquainted with the versions by Euripides and Seneca (and they’re still fresh in my mind)? As with the Electra myth under the hands of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, it’s fascinating to watch great artists play with the same material (which is very different from the mind-numbing tedium of Hollywood pumping out sequels and remakes for easy money). 

I read the translation by Robert Bruce Boswell, who uses the names Phaedra, Hippolytus, Theseus, Aricia, Oenone, Theramenes, etc. instead of Phèdre, Hippolyte, Thésée, Aricie, Œnone, Théramène, etc.

Starting from the same myth about Phaedra fancying her stepson Hippolytus, Euripides simplifies the plot, in which Theseus is simply away; Seneca complicates it, emphasising Phaedra’s background and the image of the bull, having Theseus go to the underworld to help a friend abduct Persephone, and mentioning that Theseus killed Hippolytus’s mother Antiope; Racine complicates the plot even more by creating the character of Aricia, daughter and sole survivor of the royal house supplanted by Theseus and the woman with whom Hippolytus has fallen in love. I guess the French wouldn’t buy a character who is indifferent to love and women. Racine also has Theseus rumoured to be dead, which is believed to lead to a rivalry for the throne between Phaedra’s son, Hippolytus, and Aricia, but which actually causes Phaedra to act on her feelings for Hippolytus and Hippolytus to confess his feelings to Aricia. That sounds more French. 

2/ Racine’s version is closer to Seneca’s in terms of plot. In both plays, the gods are mentioned but don’t appear. In both plays, Phaedra tells Hippolytus her feelings. In both plays, the rape accusation—the idea of attacking first—comes from the nurse. In both plays, Phaedra is alive as she falsely accuses Hippolytus (though Racine’s Phaedra only insinuates, the nurse is the one making the accusation). In both plays, Phaedra kills herself in front of Theseus after Hippolytus’s death. However, like Euripides, Racine has Theseus confronting Hippolytus and the son trying to defend himself. 

The central difference between Racine and Seneca, however, is that Seneca’s characters are all base and repulsive, whereas Racine’s characters are nobler and more sympathetic. Phaedra, or Phèdre, struggles against her own passion. 

“PHAEDRA […] I look’d, alternately turn’d pale and blush’d

To see him, and my soul grew all distraught;

A mist obscured my vision, and my voice

Falter’d, my blood ran cold, then burn’d like fire;

Venus I felt in all my fever’d frame,

Whose fury had so many of my race

Pursued. 

[…] I fled his presence everywhere, but found him--

O crowning horror!—in his father’s features.” 

And when she confesses her feelings to Hippolytus (or Hippolyte), not knowing about Aricia: 

“PHAEDRA […] I love. But think not

That at the moment when I love you most

I do not feel my guilt; no weak compliance

Has fed the poison that infects my brain.

The ill-starr’d object of celestial vengeance,

I am not so detestable to you

As to myself.” 

She only yields to Oenone’s persuasions when she—everyone—thinks Theseus is dead. Later she gets a bad conscience as she, following Oenone, smears Hippolytus’s name to save her own honour.  

Now look at her when she realises that he loves someone else. 

“PHAEDRA […] Ye gods, when, deaf to all my sighs and tears,

He arm’d his eye with scorn, his brow with threats,

I deem’d his heart, impregnable to love,

Was fortified ’gainst all my sex alike.

And yet another has prevail’d to tame

His pride, another has secured his favour.” 

How could anyone not pity her? 

“PHAEDRA […] Alas! full freedom had they

To see each other. Heav’n approved their sighs;

They loved without the consciousness of guilt;

And every morning’s sun for them shone clear,

While I, an outcast from the face of Nature,

Shunn’d the bright day, and sought to hide myself.”

She is nobler, and more psychologically complex than Seneca’s character. Her suffering is a mixture of shame and guilt and heartbreak. 

Like Euripides, Racine also gives a sense of nobility to Hippolytus and Theseus—something Seneca doesn’t do—Hippolytus’s death in Racine’s play is heartbreaking, as he previously decided to remain silent about Phaedra’s sexual advances because “Let us trust to Heav’n/ My vindication, for the gods are just.” The irony! 

3/ Aricia, Racine’s added character, is dull, barely alive. But the character of the nurse is the most interesting one in the three plays, because of the relationship between her and Phaedra. 

When Phaedra, at the beginning of the play, wants to kill herself, Oenone tries to dissuade her, saying that her suicide would offend the gods and be a betrayal of Theseus and her children. When that doesn’t work, she says: 

“OENONE […] Think how in my arms you lay

New born. For you, my country and my children

I have forsaken. Do you thus repay

My faithful service?” 

Racine develops their relationship further and emphasises her devotion: Oenone is the one who tells Phaedra to stay alive; she is the one who persuades her to speak to Hippolytus after Theseus’s supposed death; and she is the one who comes up with the rape accusation. And yet: 

“PHAEDRA […] What hast thou done? Why did your wicked mouth

With blackest lies slander his blameless life?

Perhaps you’ve slain him, and the impious pray’r

Of an unfeeling father has been answer’d.

No, not another word! Go, hateful monster […]. 

OENONE (alone) O gods! to serve her what have I not done?

This is the due reward that I have won.”

I’m not telling you what happens in the end, but Racine turns her into a tragic character. Unlike Seneca, he gets you to understand and have pity for all the characters, even when they do wicked things. 

This is a great play.