Classical View of Passion in Hippolytus: Part Three

Phaedre’s feelings seem to her eternal and limitless, unbounded. It is our nature that we are sure in our feelings and emotions ‘of our own ego’ (Freud 12). This ego is Phaedre’s autonomous part, however, such statement is not right as the ego is a part of a person and it continues ‘inwards, into an unconscious mental entity’. At the height of being in love the line, which separates ego and objects, simply disappears. Consequently, a person in love states that there are no words ‘I’ and ‘you’, instead, there is the only word – ‘we’, and behaves according to this statement. In the case of Phaedre we notice that she behaves this way, moreover, Phaedre’ s perceptions, thoughts and feelings seem to be alien to her as they are belonging to her ego that separates her off the external world (Freud 13).

Sigmund Freud believes that man’s life is directed by the programme of the ‘pleasure principle [which influences greatly the] operation of the mental apparatus from the start’ (Freud 25). Phaedre’s ‘pleasure principle’ was woken up by the goddess Aphrodite for achieving her own purpose – she wanted to show to Hippolytus the real meaning of the word ‘love’. That is why Phaedre does not want to be unhappy; she loves and wants to be loved in return. It is difficult for everyone to experience unhappiness. Phaedre does not want to suffer. According to Freud, we are threatened with suffering from three directions: ‘from our own body, which is doomed by decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without them and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless sources of destruction; and finally, from our relations … The suffering which comes from this last source, is perhaps more painful to us than any other’ (26). Consequently, a woman tries to put an end to her sufferings and wants to change the reality. She behaves like a paranoic, tries to correct that aspect of the world, which she cannot bear (Freud 32). It has happened to Phaedre that love is the centre of everything in her life. She searches for satisfaction of her desires; her passion, or sexual love, promises to give her the ‘most intense experience of an overwhelming sensation of pleasure’ and she searches for happiness (Freud 32-33).