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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In four pages this paper examines how Enlightenment values are represented in Racine’s tragedy and serves as a rationalist’s cautionary tale against the dangers of emotions, and also considers the root causes of the play’s tragic outcomes. Three sources are cited in the bibliography.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG61_TGracphae.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Scholars and philosophers of the Enlightenment believed in the superiority of science and reason over passions and emotions. The enlightened man or woman relied upon his head rather than
his heart to make decisions. Conversely, the passionate individual was believed to lack self-control, and therefore was dismissed as weak and inferior. French playwright Jean Racine (1639-1699) reexamined
Greek tragedies from a seventeenth-century Enlightenment perspective. His 1677 play Phaedra (also spelled Phedre) is a reworking of Euripides tragedy Hippolytus, and considers the tragic consequences of passionate emotions
on the individual (Berlin 44). The plot - which focuses on Queen Phaedras illicit love for her husband Theseuss son Hippolytus (which was deemed incestuous at the time even
though there were no biological ties) - celebrates Enlightenment values of reason and rational thought because when the characters succumb to feelings of love and desire, they each are doomed
to suffer tragic fates. In the plays first act, Hippolytus confides to Theramenes (his tutor and mentor) that he will be embarking upon a search for his father, who has
been absent from Troezen for the past six months. However, when questioned by Theramenes, Hippolytus admits there is a far more emotional reason for his hasty departure - his
forbidden love for Aricia, the lone surviving member of the royal family Theseus defeated. Aricia is the Kings captive and is imprisoned by the vow of chastity Theseus imposed
upon her. Rather than acknowledge his love for the young girl, Hippolytus believes it is more prudent to distance himself from any emotional temptation. Meanwhile, during the past
several months, Phaedra has fallen deeply in love with her stepson, a malady she refers to "mad fever" when confiding her erotic feelings to her nurse Oenone (Racine 6).
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