Phèdre

Hippolytus (French Hippolyte) is the son of Theseus and Antiope, an Amazon whom Theseus loved before he married Phaedra. Hippolytus is depicted as a character of unwavering integrity and virtue. He never loses sight of his sense of The Importance of Honor and Duty, and values chastity, loyalty, and honesty above all else.

In Racine’s play, Hippolytus’s traditional devotion to the virgin goddess Diana is unimportant, and though Hippolytus is chaste—as he is in the versions by Euripides and Seneca—he is also, for the first time, in love. This innovation of Racine’s marks a significant transformation, signaled in a metaliterary fashion in the very first Act when Theramenes observes,

Is it that you

No longer are that proud Hippolytus,

Relentless enemy of the laws of love,

And of a yoke to which your father bowed

So many times (180-81)?

The misogyny latent in the chastity of Euripides’s and Seneca’s Hippolytus is also dispensed with. Racine thus makes his Hippolytus and his motivations more complex.

However, Racine’s Hippolytus is not without his weaknesses. He is proud, and very sure of his virtue. He is also very naïve, and this naivete contributes to his downfall. When Theseus banishes him on the false charge of assault, Hippolytus cannot understand how his own father should fail to understand him, and does not even attempt to reveal the truth about Phaedra’s true feelings for him.

Part of Hippolytus’s tragedy originates precisely in his relationship with his father and the fact that Hippolytus feels inadequate in his father’s shadow: At the beginning of the play, Hippolytus longs to leave Troezen so that he can prove himself by fighting monsters, just as Theseus did when he was young. Hippolytus ultimately gets this opportunity when Neptune sends a monster from the sea to kill him. Unlike Theseus, Hippolytus is defeated by his monster. Although he may not be the “hero” that Theseus is, Hippolytus retains his moral integrity until the very end—a moral integrity that the impulsive and violent Theseus clearly lacks.

Theseus (French Thésée) is the king of Athens, the father of Hippolytus, and the husband of Phaedra. He is known as a great hero who defeated fierce monsters and evildoers in his heyday, but he is also infamous for his infidelities with the many lovers and wives he has had.

Theseus is often contrasted with Hippolytus in the play: Theseus is much more accomplished than Hippolytus, but Hippolytus is much purer—and ultimately much more honorable and virtuous—than Theseus is. In Racine’s play, the character of Theseus is not depicted with particular sympathy. He is extremely self-centered, taking it as a serious affront that he receives a cold reception from Phaedra and Hippolytus when he returns to Troezen after a long absence, and even suspecting Hippolytus of treason. He is also very harsh, punishing Aricia severely for the treachery of her family and ultimately bringing about the death of his own son on very little evidence. Theseus’s impulsiveness and severity are his chief weaknesses and have grave consequences for him at the end of the play, leaving him with the double loss of his wife and son.

Aricia (French Aricie) is an invention of Racine’s, not appearing in ancient accounts of the Hippolytus myth (See: Background). She is the cousin of Theseus, the daughter of his uncle Pallas. As the sister of the sons of Pallas, who traditionally tried to seize the Athenian throne from Theseus and his father Aegeus, Aricia becomes a political enemy of Theseus. To punish her for her family ties, Theseus forces Aricia to abstain from marriage.

In Racine’s play, Aricia’s status as a kind of political prisoner causes her to be wary. She sees herself as a “victim” of fate, and hardly believes it when Hippolytus tells her that, with Theseus dead, she is free to do as she likes. Similarly, she loves Hippolytus but does not dare to believe that he will reciprocate her feelings, and is overjoyed to discover that he does. Aricia’s good fortune does not last long, and at the end of the play, Theramenes describes her mourning Hippolytus’s death with her servant, once again a “victim” of fate.