Classical Views of Passion in Racine's Phedre: Part Two


by Olivia Hunt - Date: 2007-07-06 - Word Count: 335 Share This!

However, there exist another point of view and according to Barthes, ‘the Racinian Eros ...is never sublimated; emerging fully armed, entirely finished, from pure vision, it is immobilized in the perpetual fascination of the adverse body, it constantly reproduces the original scene that has formed it...; the recital these heroes make of it to their confidant is obviously not a matter of information but a veritable obsessive protocol' (Barthes 12).
In Racine's version of the play Hippolytus does not feel aversion for women. Moreover, he loves Aricia and his love is mutual as Aricia loves him too. Ismene tells Aricia about Hoppolytus' feelings for her:
I saw he could not take his eyes off you -
He tried to, but he could not. Those eyes, madam,
Were painful with longing - helpless longing....
But those eyes told everything. (24)
Later he confesses his father that he loves Aricia:
I am in love. ...
I worship Aricia.
Father, I adore her. My inmost soul
Belongs only to Aricia. (60)
Thus, Racine's Hippolytus is more plausible than in the play of Euripides. Hippolytus love for Aricia makes him more masculine.
Phaedre in Racine's play is a brave woman who is suffering because of her passion and desire. With time her passion becomes stronger and autonomous and she cannot control it:
Where I am? What am I saying?
Where did those words come from? My mind is strange.
Some god has taken my senses.
My face feels to be coming apart
With all the turmoil. (11)
Besides, Phaedre's love is expressed with the help of visual objects and symbols, like sword, torch, labyrinth, which denote Freudian phallic symbols: In spite of all the labyrinth's knots and tangles / You would have slaughtered the Minotaur. (36). After that she continues and asks Hippolytus to kill her, she mentions a sword: Look - my heart. Here. / Bury your sword here. (38) Friedrich Nietzsche believes there are two kinds of people: those who are victims and those who are ‘in the power of destiny'. We can classify Phaedre as a victim who is trying not to show her real feelings and emotions.


Related Tags: article, writing, love, article writing, passion, report writing, classical, essay writing, book report, freud, essay-papernet, literature review, article review, hippolytus, bataille, racine, phedre

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