Phèdre

Jean Racine (December 22, 1639 - April 21, 1699) was one of the most important dramatists of 17th-century France, alongside Molière and Corneille. Racine was known primarily as a tragedian. His works were deeply influenced by the tradition of Greek and Roman drama, exploring classical themes such as the passions, character, and fate and often reworking the plots of plays by classical tragedians such as Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca.

Racine’s early works, La Thébaïde (1664) and Alexandre le Grand (1665), already showcased what would become his trademark style, though critics attacked these tragedies for their potentially negative influence on audiences. Racine continued refining his style with plays such as Andromaque (1667), based on Euripides’s Andromache, which would become one of his most popular plays. Phèdre, first performed in 1677 as Phèdre et Hippolyte (Phaedra and Hippolytus), would also eventually be hailed as a masterpiece and a prototypical example of Racine’s style, though the tragedy flopped at its first performance. Though Racine stopped writing secular plays for many years after the failure of his Phèdre, he did eventually return to the stage, producing a comedy for young people, Esther, in 1689, and his celebrated Athalie in 1691. Racine produced only one comedy, Les Plaideurs (1669).

Racine’s Phèdre, inspired by the Greek myth of Hippolytus, is characteristic of the author’s use of themes from classical tragedy. Two ancient tragedies on the myth of Hippolytus have survived, and both clearly influenced Racine. The first of these, Euripides’s Hippolytus, premiered around 428 BCE. This tragedy, in Greek, presented Hippolytus as a haughty figure devoted to the goddess Artemis and determined to remain celibate. This enrages Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, whose worship Hippolytus neglects. She punishes the young man by causing his stepmother Phaedra, the current wife of Hippolytus’s father Theseus, to fall hopelessly in love with him. Phaedra’s nurse, learning of her “mistress[’s]” condition, propositions Hippolytus on her behalf. After Hippolytus savagely rebuffs the nurse, the desperate Phaedra dies by hanging, but not before leaving behind a tablet for Theseus to find in which she accuses Hippolytus of trying to assault her. Theseus finds the tablet, banishes Hippolytus, and asks his father, the sea god Poseidon, to kill Hippolytus. Only after Poseidon fulfills this terrible prayer does Artemis appear to Theseus to tell him of his error. The dying Hippolytus is brought in and father and son are reconciled before Hippolytus dies.

Seneca’s Phaedra, probably composed in the first half of the first century CE, departs from Euripides’s play in several ways. For one, Aphrodite (Roman Venus) never appears on stage, though her agency is felt throughout the play. Moreover, Seneca’s Phaedra ends her life only after Hippolytus is killed, after confessing the truth to Theseus herself. There is no time for a reconciliation between Theseus and Hippolytus in Seneca’s play, as Hippolytus is already dead by the time Theseus discovers his innocence.

In its broad outlines, the plot of Racine’s Phèdre follows Euripides and Seneca: Phaedra falls in love with her stepson Hippolytus, accuses him when he rejects her, and ultimately brings about both her and Hippolytus’s deaths. However, Racine makes several changes too. Stylistically, Racine translates the iambic meter of Greek and Roman drama to the contemporary alexandrine. He also does away with the presence of a Chorus, an element of classical drama that had fallen out of European theater. Racine also innovates on the level of the plot in a very sophisticated way. No gods appear on stage, and though their presence is felt, it is filtered through the worldviews of the characters. A new character, Aricia, is introduced, becoming the love interest of Hippolytus (whose misogyny—a central aspect of his character for Euripides and Seneca—becomes muted). The guilt of Phaedra is also minimized in ways that add depth to her character as she is torn between love, duty, and jealousy. Racine thus develops and expands the themes explored by his models Euripides and Seneca.