Phèdre

Acts 3 and 4 further illustrate Racine’s balancing of tradition and innovation. Theseus’s return is another element from traditional mythology, though Racine rationalizes the myth of Theseus’s imprisonment in the underworld with a story about his capture by the ruler of Epirus (a kingdom near the traditional entrance to the underworld). At times, Racine virtually quotes from Euripides or Seneca. For instance, when Racine’s Theseus wonders, “should one not by certain signs perceive / The heart of villainous men?” (208), he recalls something that Theseus says to Hippolytus in Euripides’s Hippolytus:

If there were

some token now, some mark to make the division

clear between friend and friend, the true and the false!

(Euripides, Hippolytus 924-26, trans. David Grene)

Acts 3 and 4 set the stage for the play’s tragic denouement in Act V. At the heart of the rising conflict is The Importance of Honor and Duty, as Phaedra, Hippolytus, and Theseus all grapple with what the honorable course of action is. The scenes are rife with misunderstandings and miscalculations, both in terms of the characters’ self-knowledge and their understanding of others.

The first misunderstanding is Phaedra’s misunderstanding of Hippolytus. In the first three Scenes of Act III, Phaedra convinces herself that Hippolytus will betray her secret to maintain his father’s honor:

Do you suppose

That he, so sensitive to Theseus’ honor,

Will hide the fires that burn me—and betray

His father and his king (202, emphasis added)?

In referencing how sensitive Hippolytus is to Thesus’s “honor” and Theseus’s twin status as both “[Hippolytus’s] father and his king,” Phaedra dwells on what she assumes Hippolytus will consider the most honorable thing to do: reveal her secret and expose her as a traitor to both her marriage and the highest political authority in the land. Once again, ideas of honor and duty are closely linked to those of familial and political ties, and Phaedra immediately believes—erroneously—that Hippolytus will consider betraying her a matter of duty.

Nevertheless, Phaedra’s certainty of Hippolytus’s imminent betrayal is entirely misguided. Hippolytus’s subsequent behavior reveals that he believes the honorable thing to do is to keep Phaedra’s secret, regardless of what it may cost him to do so. He tells Theseus from the beginning, “Phaedra alone the mystery can explain” (205), and does not betray her feelings toward him even when Theseus banishes him for assaulting Phaedra. Hippolytus even betrays his own forbidden love for Aricia before he betrays Phaedra’s forbidden love for him, although he knows this could put him at even further risk, since Theseus considers Aricia a political enemy.

Another key misunderstanding in the face of The Importance of Honor and Duty is Oenone’s miscalculation of how severely Theseus will punish Hippolytus over the matter of his wife’s honor. In falsely accusing Hippolytus, Oenone reasons,

When he punishes,

A father is always father, satisfied

With a light penalty (204).

Oenone’s mistake very soon becomes clear: Theseus is so incensed at Hippolytus’s supposed betrayal of his father’s marriage and his stepmother’s person that his punishment leads to Hippolytus’s banishment and death—hardly “a light penalty.” This is another instance in which Racine’s Theseus follows his counterpart from an ancient source—Seneca’s Phaedra—in emphasizing that he will use his prayer to Neptune to destroy Hippolytus despite saving this prayer all throughout his period of captivity: Such is the gravity of Theseus’s anger, and so deeply does he feel this affront to his honor as husband, father, and king.

Theseus’s anger leads to the greatest misunderstanding of all: his misunderstanding of Hippolytus. Just as Phaedra misunderstands how Hippolytus interprets The Importance of Honor and Duty, so too does Theseus. Theseus becomes convinced that Hippolytus’s nobility and sense of duty is all show and that Hippolytus is nothing but a “traitor, a rash traitor” (207) and that if “the brow / Of a profane adulterer shine with virtue” (208), it is only because there are no “certain signs” to distinguish good men from bad. In vain Hippolytus urges Theseus, “examine / My life,” pleading, “Remember who I am” (209). Hippolytus may be “known in Greece” (210), but he is not known to his own father. Nothing that Hippolytus says in his defense can convince Theseus because Theseus judges his son by his own behavior, characterized by a notorious lust for power and women: The idea that Hippolytus could indeed behave with probity and honor despite accounts to the contrary is unfathomable to Theseus. The misunderstandings of the play thus reflect the characters’ conflicting values and highlight the different ways each of them approach honor and duty.

Acts 3 and 4 also return to the theme of Forbidden Love and Desire. Phaedra claims to be in love with Hippolytus, but when she comes to believe that Hippolytus threatens her reputation, he becomes “a monster hideous to [her] eyes” (203). In the contest between Phaedra’s desire for Hippolytus and her desire for a good reputation, it is reputation that wins out. Later, in Act IV, Phaedra becomes so jealous of Hippolytus’s feelings for Aricia that she allows him to die; she even berates herself for allowing her perverse feelings for Hippolytus to allow her to “forget [her] duty” (215, emphasis added). Phaedra feels torn as to whether it is more honorable to let Hippolytus die or to reveal the truth, even if doing so means destroying herself. Her jealousy of Aricia only serves to complicate matters, turning her away from considerations of honor and duty and back towards the desire that consumes her. For Phaedra, her sexual jealousy and desire to preserve her reputation ultimately take precedence over her feelings for Hippolytus. In forgoing the opportunity to reveal the truth before it is too late, Phaedra abandons Hippolytus to his father’s wrath, enabling the tragedy to continue towards its fatal culmination.