Classical Views of Passion in Racine’s ‘Phedre’: Part Three

People often hide their real feelings under a ‘mask’, which they do not want to reveal. According to Nietzsche everyone needs a mask and Phaedre is not an exception. At the beginning of the play she tries to hide her feelings. Phaedre understands that it is wrong to love the son of her husband and we see the conflict between reason and emotions in her soul. However, she cannot be silent any longer. Her passion does not allow her even to sleep and eat. Phaedre wears a mask only at the beginning of the play, then she takes it off revealing her passion in a wish to love and be loved. Phaedre expresses deep emotions, a passion in her words:

Theseus brought me to Troezen.

And here, in Troezen,

I had to confront the one I had banished.

The first sight of him ripped my wounds wide open.

No longer a fever in my veins,

Venus has fastened on me like a tiger.

I know my guilt, and it terrifies me.

My own craving fills me with horror.

I detest my life. (18)

Two kinds of love are confronting each other: the passionate love (Eros) and the nurturing love, which is solid and healthy. She tells that she wants to talk about her son but continues with the following words: The widow of King Theseus has dared / To fall in love with his son, Hippolytus. / This disgusting pest should be killed. (38). It is important to mention that Phaedre’s father was Helios – the god of the sun. According to Georges Bataille, the sun is the most elevated symbol and it reveals everything. It is an abstract object with poetic meaning. Moreover, Bataille identifies the sun with a ‘mental ejaculation’ and ‘epileptic crisis’ (57). The sun symbolizes the rise and fall of Phaedre’s passion in Jean Racine’s play: at first her passion is growing and, having reached its alltime high, is falling with the great speed. The situation is similar to the myth of Icarus, when the sun is shining brightly at the moment of his elevation and when it melts the wax Icarus falls with a great speed on the Earth (Bataille 58).