Introduction
Through the centuries, from deep antiquity, the heroes of mythological plots come to us, retaining their customs, customs, originality. But, passing through the prism of time and distance, their main ideas, partly characters, views and the very essence of their actions change. There is no exception and the plot in which Phaedra, the wife of the Athenian king Theseus (Fesey), fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. Rejected by him, she commits suicide, discrediting Hippolytus and accusing him of an attempt on her honor. So this plot was used by the great Greek tragedian Euripides, Seneca, the Roman master of the "new style", and Racine in his work "Phaedra", written in the best traditions of French classicism (1677).
Of course, each work is the brainchild of not only its author, but also the people, the social position in society, the political system that existed at that time, and, often, only emerging new thoughts and trends, as was the case with the work of Euripides "Hippolytus".
So, to find the differences and pidibius in the works of Euripides and Senelli, the reasons for their occurrence and the degree of influence public opinion and the surrounding reality on them is our task.
In my opinion, the roots of the theme, the ideas of each work and the reasons that prompt the author to do so, should be sought in its origin, education, way of thinking and acting, and the surrounding reality.
The isolation of the individual and the critical attitude to tmyth - both of these trends of the new worldview were in sharp contradiction with ideological foundations the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles; nevertheless, they received their first literary incarnation within the tragic genre, which remained the leading branch of Attic literature in the 5th century.
New currents of Greek social thought found a response in the works of Euripides, the third great poet of Athens.
The dramatic work of Euripides proceeded almost simultaneously with the activities of Sophocles. Euripides was born around 406. His first plays were staged in 455, and from that time on he was Sophocles' most prominent rival on the Athenian stage for almost half a century. He did not achieve success with his contemporaries soon; success was not lasting. The ideological content and dramatic innovations of his tragedies met with sharp condemnation from the conservative part of the Athenians and served as the subject of constant ridicule of comedy.
5th century Over twenty times he performed with his works at tragic competitions, but the Athenian jury for all this time awarded him only five prizes, the last time posthumously. But later, during the period of the expansion of the policy and in the Eliistic era, Euripides became the favorite tragic poet of the Greeks.
The most reliable biographical sources depict Euripides as a solitary thinker - a book lover. He was the owner of a fairly significant book collection. In the political life of Athens, he did not take an active part, preferring leisure devoted to philosophical and literary pursuits. This way of life, unusual for the citizens of the polis, was often attributed by Euripides even to mythological heroes.
The crisis of the traditional polis ideology and the search for new foundations and ways of worldview found a very vivid and complete reflection in the tragedy of Euripides.
A solitary poet and thinker, he sensitively responded to the burning issues of social and political life. His theater is a kind of encyclopedia of the mental movement of Greece in the second half of the 5th century.
In the works of Euripides, various problems were posed that were of interest to Greek social thought, new theories were presented and discussed, ancient criticism called Euripides a philosopher on the stage ..
However, he was not a supporter of any philosophical doctrine, and his own views were not distinguished by either consistency or constancy.
It is important for us that negative attitude makes Eripides aggressive foreign policy democracy. He is an Athenian patriot and enemy
Sparta. Euripides are alien philosophical views Roman society.
Seneca, like Euripides, was the son of his state, and this influenced the character of his work "Phaedra", as well as all his work. The structure of the empire created by Augustus ("Principate") lasted over 200 years after the death of its founder, until the crisis of the 3rd century. The military dictatorship turned out to be the only state form in which the ancient society, corroded by the contradictions of the rabst, could continue to exist after the collapse of the polis system.
With all the appearance of flourishing, symptoms of the impending decomposition of the slave system began to appear very soon. It is in Italy that the signs of economic decline are most pronounced, but while the economic decline was just approaching, the social and moral decline of Roman society was already evident. The general lack of rights and the loss of hope for the possibility of a better order corresponded to general apathy and demoralization.
The bulk of the population demanded only "bread" and "circuses". And the state considered it its direct duty to satisfy this need.
Subservience, open pursuit of material wealth, weakening of social feelings, fragility of family ties, celibacy and falling birth rates
– character traits Roman society in the 1st century
On this ground, the level of Roman literature is lowered, and individual brilliant exceptions do not change overall picture. Characteristic
"Silver Age" - the emergence of a large number of provincials among literary figures. In particular, Spain, the oldest and most culturally advanced of the Romanized Western provinces, produced a number of significant writers—Seneca, Lucan, Quintilian, and others. The style, created by the "reciters" of the time of August, was most widespread in the middle of the 1st century. Writers I. call it the "new" style, in contrast to the "old" style of Cicero, whose long speeches, philosophical reasoning, strictly balanced periods now seemed sluggish and boring. Literary traditions"Asianism" found fertile ground in Rome at the beginning of the 1st century. with its thirst for brilliance, the desire for a proud pose and the pursuit of sensually vivid impressions. the best master"new" style in the middle of the 1st century. - Lucius Annaeus Senela. Born in Spain, in the city of Corduba, but grew up in Rome. Seneca was educated in the spirit of the new rhetoric and expanded it with philosophical knowledge. In his youth, he was fond of fresh philosophical trends, and in the 30s he took up advocacy and ended up in the Senate. But, having gone through the circles of hell of political intrigues, ups and downs, he moved away from the court and took up literary and philosophical activities.
The philosophical views of Seneca, like those of Euripides, are not distinguished by either consistency or constancy. His reflections are centered around questions of spiritual life and practical morality. Philosophy is medicine for the soul; knowledge of the environment interests Seneca mainly from the religious and ethical side, as a means of knowing the deity merged by nature (“What is God? The soul of the universe”) and for purifying the soul from false fears, and in logical studies he sees only fruitless reasoning.
Like most of his contemporaries, Seneca loves bright colors, and he is best at pictures of vices, strong affects, pathological conditions. He relentlessly adheres to the slogans of the "new" style -
"passion", "swiftness", "impulsiveness". In Seneca's short, pointed phrases, saturated with figurative contrasts, the "new" style received its most legitimate expression. Seneca's enormous literary popularity was based on this stylistic art, and it is these characteristics that can be traced in his tragedy Phaedra.
Thus, a great temporal separation, life in states of different political systems, different social philosophies that surrounded the Greek and Roman tragedians, their life had a great influence on their approaches to the plot, theme and idea of ancient myth. the main task this work
- answer the questions:
— comparative analysis the tragedies of Seneca and Euripides;
- interpretation of gods and religion as philosophical views on being;
- Phaedra is the main character, the tragedy of her fate;
- Hippolytus - the fate of man is in the hands of the gods;
- the main questions of the works "Hippolytus" and "Phaedra" - "What is evil?",
"What are his reasons?"
comparative analysis of tragedies
Along with criticism of the traditional worldview, the works of Euripides reflect a huge interest in individual and her subjective aspirations, monumental images are alien to him, highly exalted above the ordinary level, as the embodiment of generally binding norms. He depicts people with individual drives and impulses, passions and internal struggles. The display of the dynamics of feeling and passion is especially characteristic of Euripides. For the first time in ancient literature, he clearly poses psychological problems, in particular the disclosure of female psychology. The significance of Euripides' work for world literature is primarily in the creation of female images. Euripides finds grateful material for depicting passions using the theme of love. Of particular interest in this respect is the tragedy Hippolytus. The myth of Hippolyta is one of the Greek versions of the story about a treacherous wife who slanders in front of her husband a chaste stepson who did not want to share her love. Phaedra, wife of the king of Athens
Feseya is in love with the young man Hippolytus, a passionate hunter and worshiper of the virgin goddess Artemis, who avoids love and women. Rejected
Hippolytus, Phaedra unjustly accuses him of trying to dishonor her.
Fulfilling the request of an angry father, the god Poseidon sends a monstrous bull, which instills fear in the horses of Hippolytus, and he dies, crashing against the rocks.
In Seneca's work, the external forms of the old Greek tragedy remained unchanged - monologues and dialogues in verse forms common to tragedy alternate with the lyrical parts of the choir, more than three characters do not take part in the dialogue, the parts of the choir divide the tragedy into five acts. But the structure of the drama, the images of the characters, the very nature of the tragic become completely different. The tragedy of Seneca looks more simplified. The ideological side of the Greek play was not relevant to Seneca. These questions have been eliminated, but not replaced by any other problems. Where Euripides makes you feel the complex drama of the rejected woman. Struggle between the temptation of passion and the preservation of honor:
And cheeks burn with shame ... to return
To consciousness hurts so much that it seems better
If only I could die without waking up.
(Phaedra, "Hippolytus")
Seneca shifts the center of gravity to the vengeful fury of the rejected woman. The image became more monotonous, but on the other hand, moments of conscious, volitional purposefulness intensified in it:
“Shame has not left the noble soul.
I obey. Love can't be directed
But you can win. I won't stain
You, oh glory. There is a way out of troubles: I will go
Married. Death will prevent misfortune."
(Phaedra, "Phaedra")
The tragedy of Seneca is rhetorical: the role of the directly influencing word increases in them at the expense of the indirectly influencing image of the action. The poverty of external dramatic action and even internal psychological action is striking, everything is expressed, behind the words of the hero there is no residue that requires a different, non-verbal expression, while
Euripides expresses himself in allusions, obviously afraid of incurring a threat.
The tragedy was written according to ancient custom, on a mythological theme; Seneca interestingly uses only one mythological hint, which creates an association rich in meaning, directly related to the plot of the drama. IN
"Phaedre" is between the heroine's criminal love for her stepson and her mother's love for the bull. This creates additional meaning, makes the details of the plot more intense - but, of course, slows down the overall movement.
Another reason for the static nature of Seneca's tragedy is in the nature of its execution. Apparently, it was never intended to be staged. And it was performed only in the form of recitation - public reading aloud.
The injection of cruel details was supposed to compensate for the weakened sense of the tragedy of the usual plot. Everyone knew how Hippolytus would die, but if Euripides’ description of his death takes incomplete 4 lines, then Seneca devotes 20 lines to this, in which “torn flesh” (in Euripides) turns into a “face torn by sharp stones”, “a body torn apart by a drunken in the groin with a sharp bough", "thorn thorns tearing half-dead flesh, so that bloodied shreds hang on all the bushes."
The third reason for the “inaction” of tragedy lies in its philosophical setting.
Offering us your mythological plot, he tries as soon as possible to ascend from a particular event to a general instructive rule. Each situation in the tragedy of Seneca is either discussed in general terms, or gives rise to a general idea.
Like Euripides, Seneca tried to bring his own vision of the problem into the work. He wrote in this way not for the sake of fashion, but because it allowed him to create a sense of non-literary, colloquial, intimate, lively interest. This brought him closer to the reader.
views of poets on the problems of our time
Euripides takes a clear position in relation to traditional religion and mythology. Criticism of the mythological system, begun by the Ionian philosophers, finds a decisive follower in the person of Euripides. He often emphasizes the coarse features of mythological giving and accompanies with critical remarks. So in the tragedy "Electra" in the mouth of the choir, he puts the following statements:
“So they say, but I find it hard to believe ...
Myths that instill fear in people
Profitable for the cult of the gods.
Numerous objections are raised by him about the moral content of myths. Depicting the traditional gods, he emphasizes their base passions, whims, arbitrariness, cruelty towards people. In Hippolyta, Aphrodite clearly expresses her attitude towards people and confirms the idea of Euripides:
“The one who meekly accepts my power,
I cherish, but if in front of me
Whoever thinks to be proud, he perishes.
Direct negation folk religion was impossible in the conditions of the Athenian theater: the play would not have been staged and would have brought on the author a dangerous accusation of impiety. Euripides therefore confines himself to allusions, expressions of doubt. His tragedy is structured in such a way that the outward course of action seems to lead to the triumph of the gods, but the viewer is instilled with doubts about their moral correctness. "If the gods do shameful things, then they are not gods." This is already emphasized in the prologue, from which the viewer learns that the catastrophe of Phaedra and Hippolytus is the revenge of Aphrodite.
The goddess hates Hippolyta because he does not honor her. But at the same time, the innocent Phaedra must die.
"I'm not so sorry for her,
In order not to saturate the heart
The fall of my haters…” says Aphrodite in the prologue. This vindictiveness attributed to Aphrodite is one of Euripides' usual attacks on the traditional gods.
Patronizing Hippolyta, Artemis appears at the end of the tragedy to reveal the truth to Fesey and console Hippolytus before his death; it turns out that she could not come to the aid of her admirer in a timely manner, since “it is customary not to go between the gods in defiance of each other.”
In the works of Seneca, first of all, the moment of will, that is, the responsible choice of life providence, came into conflict with stoic fatalism - the doctrine of fate as an insurmountable chain of cause-and-effect relationships. Therefore, Seneca prefers another stoic understanding of fate - as the will of the world-creating divine mind. Unlike the human will, this divine will can only be good: God cares about people, and his will is providence. But if providence is good, then why is human life full of suffering? Seneca replies: God sends suffering in order to temper a good person in trials - only in trials can one reveal oneself, and therefore prove to people the insignificance of adversity
“You will endure… You will overcome death…
But me, alas! Cyprida
Suffering left a stigma ... "
Theseus says in Euripides' Hippolytus. And this unites the views of the authors of the works. The best choice is to accept the will of the deity, even if it is harsh: “... great people rejoice in adversity, like brave warriors in battle” [i].
As part of the divine will, a person of goodness also perceives death.
Death is pre-established by world law and therefore cannot be an unconditional evil. But life is not an unconditional good: it is valuable insofar as it has a moral basis. When it disappears, the person has the right to commit suicide. This happens when a person is under the yoke of coercion, deprived of freedom of choice. He points out that one should not leave life under the influence of passion, but reason and moral sense should suggest when suicide is the best way out. And the criterion is the ethical value of life - the ability to fulfill one's moral duty. This is the view of Seneca.
Thus, on the issue of suicide, Seneca disagrees with orthodox stoicism because, along with a person's duty to himself, he puts a duty to others. At the same time, love, affection, and other emotions are taken into account - those that a consistent Stoic would reject as “passions”.
Euripides' desire for the maximum likelihood of a tragic action can be seen in the psychological-natural motivations for the characters' behavior. It seems that the poet is disgusted by any stage convention. Even the very form of monologues, speeches without interlocutors. With such "everyday life" tragedies
Euripides, the participation in their action of gods, demigods and all sorts of miraculous forces that are not subject to earthly laws, seems especially inappropriate. But already
Aristophanes blamed Euripides for the inharmonic mixing of high and low,
Aristotle reproached him for his predilection for the “God from the Machine” technique, which consisted in the fact that the denouement did not follow from the plot, but was achieved by the appearance of God.
Showing in "Hippolytus" the death of a hero who self-confidently opposes the blind power of love, he warned of the danger that the irrational principle in human nature conceals in itself for the norms established by civilization. And if, in order to resolve the conflict, he so often needed unexpected appearance supernatural forces, then the point here is not just the inability to find a more convincing compositional move, but the fact that the poet did not see the resolution of many intricate human affairs in contemporary real conditions.
The central images of Seneca are people of great strength and passion, with the will to act and suffer, tormentors and martyrs. If they died bravely, one should not grieve, but wish for oneself the same firmness; if they did not show courage in grief, they are not so valuable as to grieve for them: “I do not mourn for either the joyful or the weeping; the first wiped away my tears, the second with tears reached the point that he was not worthy of tears. in tragic aesthetics
Seneca's compassion recedes into the background. And this is a derivative of the public morality of the Romans of this era.
Comparing the images of Euripides and Seneca, we come to the conclusion that the images of the latter became more monotonous, but on the other hand, moments of passion and conscious volitional purposefulness intensified in them.
“What can the mind do? Rules, conquering, passion,
And the whole soul is in the power of a powerful god ... "
Phaedra Seneca exclaims in her monologue.
The number of actors has decreased, and the action itself has become simpler.
Pathetic monologues and pressure scary pictures- the main means of creating a tragic impression. The tragedy of Seneca does not pose problems, does not solve the conflict. The playwright of the time of the Roman Empire, he is also a Stoic philosopher, feels the world as a field of inexorable fate, to which a person can oppose only the greatness of subjective self-affirmation, the readiness to endure everything and, if necessary, die. The result of the struggle is indifferent and does not change its value: with such an attitude, the course of the dramatic action plays only a secondary role, and it usually proceeds in a straightforward manner, without repetitive changes.
Unlike the Roman, Euripides pays great attention to family issues. In the Athenian family, the woman was almost a recluse. “For an Athenian,” says Engels, “she really was, in addition to childbearing, nothing more than a senior servant. The husband was engaged in his gymnastic exercises, his public affairs, from which the wife was excluded. Under such conditions, marriage was a burden, a duty to the gods, the state, and one's own ancestors. With the decay of the polis and the growth of individualistic tendencies, this burden began to be felt very sharply; the characters of Euripides reflect on whether they should even marry and have children. The system of Greek marriage is especially sharply criticized by women who complain about their closed existence, that marriages are carried out by agreement of parents, without meeting the future spouse, about the impossibility of getting away from a hateful husband. To the question of the place in the family, Euripides repeatedly returns to the tragedy, putting the most diverse opinions into the mouths of the characters. The image of Ferda was used by conservative opponents of Euripides in order to create a reputation for him as a "misogynist". However, he treats his heroine with obvious sympathy, and, moreover, the female images of his tragedies are by no means limited to figures like Phaedra.
The conflict between the late passion of Phaedra and the strict chastity of Hippolytus
Euripides depicted twice. In the first edition, after the death of Hippolytus, his innocence was revealed, Phaedra committed suicide. This tragedy seemed immoral to the public. Euripides considered necessary a new edition of Hippolytus, in which the image of the heroine was softened. Only the second edition (428) has come down to us in its entirety. The picture of Phaedra's love torment is drawn with great force. The new Phaedra is languishing in passion, which she carefully tries to overcome: in order to save her honor; she is ready to sacrifice her life:
“And cheeks burn with shame ... to return
To consciousness hurts so much that it seems better
If only I could die without waking up.
Only against her will, the old nurse, having elicited the secret of her mistress, reveals this secret to Hippolyte. The refusal of the indignant Hippolytus forces Phaedra to carry out a suicide plan, but now to keep her good name with the help of a dying slander on the stepson. Phaedra the seductress of the first tragedy turns into Phaedra the victim. Euripides takes pity on the woman: she became a hostage to her own position as the wife of her conquering husband, a hostage own feelings And mental illness, passing into the body. Whereas
Phaedra Seneca only mentions his powerlessness over "mental illness":
“No, love alone rules over me ...” and fights with his position with decisive methods; Phaedra Euripides is forced to bear the burden of a martyr even after death. Artemis promises Theseus:
I will avenge myself with one of my arrows,
Which do not fly for nothing.
In antiquity, both editions of Hippolytus were very popular.
The Roman Seneca in his "Phaedra" relied on the first edition of Euripides. This was natural for the contemporary needs of readers. And this is what explains some of the cruelty of the work.
You in the field collect the corpse torn to pieces, -
(about the body of Hippolytus)
And dig this hole deep:
Let the earth oppress the criminal head.
(Theseus, "Phaedra")
It was Seneca's Phaedra, with the surviving second edition of Hippolytus, that served as material for Racine's Phaedra, one of the best tragedies of French classicism (1677).
As we can see, the difference between the image of Phaedra by Euripides and Seneca lies in the dynamics of the feelings of the heroine, the depth of her image, strength of character and will, Euripides showed the depth and ambiguity of feelings, softness and fear.
The Roman painted a purposeful woman; attributed her illness to family inclinations. This is due to their contemporary views and approaches.
The image of Hippolytus was used by both authors to reveal the attitude of the gods towards mortals. And even though the Euripides goddess still appears to the young man to console him, however, she cannot help him in any way, for against
"their" gods do not go. And be that as it may, both tragedians reveal the true meaning of religion and the worship of the gods.
Thus, Seneca, like Euripides, evades a direct answer to the question of where evil comes from in the world, but all the more decisively, he answers the question of where evil comes from in man: from passions. Everything is good in measure, and only human “madness”, “madness” turns evil. Phaedra calls her hatred and her love "disease". The worst of the passions is anger, from which come impudence, cruelty, rage; love also becomes a passion and leads to shamelessness. Passions should be eradicated from the soul by the power of reason, otherwise passion will completely take possession of the soul, blind it, plunge it into madness. Phaedra's monologue of affect is an attempt to understand oneself. Changes in feelings are replaced by introspection and introspection, emotional impact - so characteristic of Seneca's interest in the psychology of passion. But there is only one outcome: “What can the mind do?” - Phaedra exclaims, and in this exclamation is the whole depth of the gap between the doctrine of moralizing rationalism and life reality, where "passions" determine the fate of not only individuals, but the entire Roman world.
The Romans have always treated poetry practically. From poetic word demanded favor, and Seneca was in this sense a true Roman. Euripides, on the other hand, was stronger in criticism than in the field of positive conclusions. He is always searching, hesitating, entangled in contradictions. Raising problems, he often limits himself to pushing opposing points of view against each other, while he himself evades a direct answer. Euripides tends to be pessimistic.
His faith in the strength of man is shaken, and life sometimes seems to him a capricious game of chance, in the face of which one can only reconcile.
With the image of strong affects, with the pathos of torment, we encounter in the artistic work of Seneca. Features that distinguish it from the Attic tragedies of the 5th century. BC e., should not always be considered as innovations belonging exclusively to Seneca or his time; they deposited all later history tragedy in Greek and Roman literature. But at that time, the views of Lucius Annei Seneca changed the very concept of Roman tragedy compared to Greek. The Greek tragedy was not a tragedy of characters, but a tragedy of positions: its hero “is not distinguished by either virtue or righteousness, and falls into misfortune not because of viciousness and meanness, but because of some kind of mistake.” In Roman tragedy, the place of "mistake" is occupied by crime (the death of Hippolytus as an example). The cause of this crime is the passion that conquered reason, and the main point is the struggle between reason and passion.
One and a half thousand years will pass, and this struggle between reason and passion will become the main motive of the new European tragedy of the Renaissance and classicism.
Thus, comparing the works of Euripides "Hippolytus" and "Phaedra"
Seneca, having considered their philosophical views, schools and trends contemporary to them, we came to the conclusion that works written on the same plot have different ideas, and hence different approaches of the authors to the general issue. From the examples presented in the work, it can be seen that each work reflects the political and social situation country at this stage, fully characterizes the attitude of the author to this. The education and upbringing of the poet leaves an imprint on his style and attitude towards the heroes, their actions.
This work helped us to discover the depth of the questions revealed by the poets of the ancient world, the attitude of the Romans and Greeks to such issues as the attitude to religion and the worship of the gods, the attitude to the family and moral issues, as well as the cause of evil and the role of fate in the destinies of people. It was interesting to learn about the peculiar approach of the poets of antiquity to some issues intimate life their contemporaries and the norms of morality established by ancient society. The author tried to fully cover the issues related to this topic and express his own opinion on this topic.
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Phaedra (character of the tragedy by J. Racine "Phaedra")
Alisa Koonen as Phaedra. Photo 1921
Phaedra (Phèdre) is a character in J. Racine's tragedy "Phaedra" ("Phèdre", 1677), wife of Theseus, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, stepmother of Hippolyte. Racine does not indicate her age, but if we consider that the outstanding actress of the Burgundy Hotel Marie Chanmelet, for whom he wrote and with whom he prepared this role, was a little less than 35 years old, then Phaedre, according to the author's intention, was about 30 (taking into account the rejuvenation of the actors created by stage means). Phaedra burns with passion for her stepson Hippolytus and opens up to him, but when her husband Theseus, whom she considered dead, returns home, then, saving herself and her children from disgrace, she allows her nurse Enona to slander Hippolytus in an attack on her honor before the truth will be revealed. Cursed by his father, Hippolytus dies, and Phaedra, full of remorse, is poisoned, confessing to Theseus her guilt and the innocence of Hippolytus before her death.
Developing the character of Phaedra, Racine relied on the tragedy of Euripides "Hippolytus Crowned" (428 BC) and Seneca's "Phaedra" (I century AD). Seneca made Phaedra the main character, which Racine accepted, but his version of this character (Phaedra from the very beginning is overwhelmed with insane passion and ready for any crime) contradicted the desire of the French playwright to choose a heroine who, in accordance with Aristotle's Poetics, could cause compassion and horror. Therefore, in the preface to the tragedy, Racine indicates that it is to Euripides that he owes “the general idea of the character of Phaedra,” remarking: “Indeed, Phaedra is neither completely criminal nor completely innocent. Fate and the wrath of the gods aroused in her a sinful passion, which terrifies, first of all, herself. She makes every effort to overcome this passion. She would rather die than reveal her secret. And when she is compelled to reveal herself, she experiences an embarrassment at the same time, showing clearly enough that her sin is a divine punishment rather than an act of own will". Racine departs from the primary sources, seeking to mitigate the guilt of the heroine: “I even made sure,” he writes in the preface, “that Phaedra arouses less hostility than in the tragedies of ancient authors, where she herself dares to accuse Hippolytus. I thought that there was something too low and too repulsive in slander to be put into the mouth of a queen, whose feelings, moreover, are so noble and so lofty. It seemed to me that this baseness was more in the nature of the nurse, who could rather have vile inclinations and who, however, decided on slander only in the name of saving the life and honor of her mistress. Phaedra is implicated in this only because of her spiritual confusion, due to which she does not control herself. Soon she returns to acquit the innocent and declare the truth." This remark emphasizes that Racine does not study the inner world of a real person, but models it in accordance with a certain setting. The playwright creates a philosophical tragedy, it is not by chance that in the preface he puts the theater and the philosophy of ancient authors side by side: “Their theater was a school, and virtue was taught in it with no less success than in the schools of philosophers. That is why Aristotle wished to lay down rules for dramatic composition, and Socrates, the wisest of thinkers, did not hesitate to put his hand to the tragedies of Euripides. In philosophical tragedy, characters are important not in themselves, but as illustrations of certain ideas. In Phaedra, the image of the main character is intended to illuminate the idea of virtue, which Racine reveals as follows: “... In none of my tragedies is virtue so clearly displayed as in this one. Here, the slightest errors are punished with all severity; only one criminal thought terrifies as much as the crime itself; weakness loving soul equates to weakness; passions are depicted for the sole purpose of showing what confusion they give rise to, and vice is painted with colors that allow you to immediately recognize and hate its ugliness. But although the creation of the image of Phaedra was not a goal for Racine, but a means of revealing the idea of virtue, he understood in a new way the tasks of reproducing character in literature, becoming one of the founders of psychologism in France. He showed one day (the last day) of her life. The passion that had tormented her for many years reached its highest intensity on that day, from the hidden for the first time became apparent and led to a tragic denouement.
The first mention of Phaedra appears in the second tirade of Hippolytus (Act I, yavl. 1), it is respectful in relation to the missing father and to Phaedra (“He has long done away with sins young years, / And Phaedra has no need to fear rivals ”; Per. M. A. Donskoy). But already in the next tirade, Hippolytus, who expressed a desire to leave Troezen, explains it by the fact that "the world changed its face" when "the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae" reigned here. The name of Phaedra is not named, her parents are named. Minos is the son of Zeus and Europe, the king of Crete, who once every nine years took tribute from Athens - seven boys and seven girls who were eaten by the Minotaur (Theseus killed the Minotaur), Minos administers justice in Hades. Pasiphae is the daughter of Helios, who was inflamed with passion for the bull sent by Poseidon, and gave birth to the monstrous Minotaur. The playwright reminded the audience, who knew ancient mythology well, that Phaedra is not just a suffering woman, she is the granddaughter of the gods, her parents carried a primitive chaos of desires, they conveyed dark, uncontrollable passions, unreasonableness and cruelty to their daughters, but at the same time, maybe be, an understanding of justice and a bright beginning (Pasiphae - lat. all luminous). Hippolytus and his mentor Theramenes speak of Phaedra's hatred for her stepson. At her urging, Theseus expelled Hippolytus from Athens.
In the next apparition of Oenona, she reports that the queen is on the verge of death, "a mysterious illness deprives her of sleep." Here Phaedra herself appears, her first words confirm everything that was said about the disease: “I will stop here, Enona, on the threshold, / I am exhausted. My legs don't support me. / And the eyes cannot bear the bright light” (Act I, yavl. 3). She says goodbye to life, wanting to take some secret to the grave. And, unexpectedly for himself, Oenone admits to a fatal passion for the “son of the Amazon” (not Phaedra, but Enone calls him by name for the first time). This passion arose long ago, when Phaedra, having become the wife of Theseus, saw her stepson for the first time in Athens. Phaedra describes her condition as follows: “Looking at him, I blushed and turned pale, / Now a flame, then a chill tormented my body, / Both sight and hearing left me, / My spirit trembled in painful confusion” (Act I, fig. 3 ). Racine was a great master of psychologism, but it is not in these descriptions that one should look for his signs. Psychologism is the principle of the artistic description of the inner world of a person, it becomes necessary in literature when the inner world is opposed to the outer one, a double life of the character arises. So far, everything that Phaedra experiences is fully consistent with the outward expression of her feelings. But now she informs Oenone that, trying to hide her criminal passion from others and herself, she began to pursue her “beloved enemy” - and Racine creates a situation that requires deep psychological analysis. Phaedra achieved the expulsion of Hippolytus from his father's house - "and then relief came." Phaedra carefully hides from Theseus that their marriage is unhappy, brings up her children - and for a while the passion subsides. But the move of Theseus and Phaedra to Troezen, where Hippolytus was exiled, reopens the wound. Now, says Phaedra, only death can hide shame. That is why she confessed to Oenone that she was determined to die. This is how she explains her behavior. But then comes the news of the death of Theseus. Phaedra decides to stay alive for the sake of her eldest son, who can rightfully become the ruler of Athens.
The rationalism of Racine's psychological analysis has been repeatedly noted in the critical literature. Phaedra accurately formulates her experiences, and her formulations fit into a measured Alexandrian verse. But Racine actually goes further and reveals such movements of the soul that are not expressed. Why is Phaedra confessing to Oenone? Why is she exhausted, almost dying? Why did her confession come before the announcement of Theseus' death, giving her more rights to make it? Because she wants, she longs to confess her love for Hippolyte, although this desire has never been expressed. And an explanation with Hippolytus becomes inevitable, this is an internal decision that does not depend on an external circumstance - the news of the death of her husband, which makes Phaedra more free to express her feelings.
In Act II, Phaedra is first mentioned in a conversation between Arikia and Ismene, who see in her only a frightened mother, fearing for the fate of her children, and in the past, a narrow-minded wife, boasting of Theseus, who cheated on her. So, neither the men (Hippolytus, Theramenes) nor the women (Arikia, Ismene) unraveled the double life of Phaedra. In yavl. 5 Phaedra meets Hippolytus for the first time in the tragedy. She cannot hide her excitement (“Here he is! .. All the blood stopped for a moment in the veins - / And gushed to the heart ...”). But she speaks with Hippolytus only about the fate of her son, who, after the death of his father and the possible imminent death of her own, will be able to find protection only in Hippolytus. And suddenly Phaedra makes a confession, outwardly almost accidental, but made because she passionately wants to confess her love to Hippolyte. This is one of the most powerful places of the tragedy. Phaedra speaks of her love for Theseus, but she loves “not the current Theseus, / A tired windmill, a slave of his own passions (...) No, my Theseus is younger! / A little unsociable, he is full of purity, / He is proud, beautiful, bold ... like a young god! .. How are you! She had said to Oenone before that she had found her son in the features of her father. The most important feature of Phaedra becomes clear: she sees the world and people not as they are. She loves not Hippolyte, but his image, created by her imagination, in which individual features of Hippolyte merged with best qualities Theseus. Interestingly, in the time of Racine, the theater had a purely external opportunity to emphasize the similarity between Theseus and Hippolytus. Both of them, like other heroes of the tragedies, were dressed in the same costumes. This type of costume (habit à la romaine - “Roman”) repeated the attire in which King Louis XIV performed at Versailles in 1662 at the performance “The Great Ride” (a helmet with a plume or a cocked hat, a large wig, a brocade cuirass with long sleeves, puffs and ribbons on the shoulders, a tunnel - a short skirt supported by tankins, flesh-colored stockings, high boots with lacing and red heels). The similarity of Theseus and Hippolytus allowed Phaedra to delay the moment of direct confession for a moment, but when it became possible to interpret the hidden meaning of her words in a different way (Hippolytus: “I did not understand you. I am tormented by shame”), Phaedra (she wants to confess!) pronounces the words ( “You understood everything, cruel!”), after which no retreat is possible, and from the lips of the queen pours a whole stream of words of love, mixed with shame, with a desire to die at the hands of a loved one in order to ease her torment. Only the faithful Oenone manages to interrupt this flow, Phaedra allows herself to be led away by her.
In Act III, Phaedra repents of her deed. Although Hippolytus was stricken with horror, Phaedra saw in him only impassivity. She does not see or understand the real Hippolyte. For the first time, Phaedra throws accusations against Oenone that she encouraged her not to part with life in the hope of love. But she is sent on a mission to seduce him with a crown, giving insidious advice (“Try everything. Look for weaker armor.” - Act III, yavl. 1). And then comes the news that Theseus is alive. Phaedra is tormented by pangs of shame and fear for her sons, on whom her shame will fall. Enona offers to slander Hippolytus, and the exhausted Phaedra is entrusted to her. Returning home to Theseus, the queen says vague words that can lead both to the right and to the wrong track.
IV act begins with the reaction of Theseus to the slander uttered earlier by Oenone against Hippolytus, who allegedly inflamed with a criminal passion for Phaedra. Theseus explains with his son, who confesses his love to him, but not to Phaedra, but to Arikia. Theseus, not believing, calls on Poseidon to punish his son. Phaedra hears these calls and is ready to confess everything, but learns from Theseus that Hippolytus assured him of his love not for Phaedra, but for Arikia. And insane jealousy wakes up in her. Now Ippolit seems treacherous to her (which again is not true), she is ready to destroy Arikia. Dark force passions grow, the image of Hades appears in the mind of Phaedra, but her father Minos administers justice there, and the thought that she will have to confess her shame to her father is unbearable for Phaedra. She pours out all the power of hatred on Enone, blaming her for what happened (which leads the wet nurse to commit suicide).
In act V, Theseus learns the truth from Arikia (only Hippolytus revealed everything to her). But too late: Ippolit died. Phaedra appears only in the last, 7th appearance, to inform Theseus about the innocence of his son, admit his guilt and die. Phaedra took poison, once brought by Medea. She herself chose her fate, becoming a true tragic heroine. Not a word of sympathy was uttered over her body.
This fully corresponds to the philosophical orientation of the work, to the rigorous assertion of virtue. This side of the tragedy was first noted by contemporaries. The largest representative Jansenism Arno wrote about the heroine of Racine: “There is no need to correct anything in the character of Phaedra, because with this character he gives us a great example that, as a punishment for past sins, God leaves us, leaving us to ourselves, the power of our sinful heart, and then there is no such madness into which we would not allow ourselves to be drawn, even if we hate vice. And later, for many readers and viewers, the main question was: “Didn’t he put into the last of his worldly creations, into his “Phaedra”, all the confusion, all the despair of the Christian soul, deprived of grace?” (A. France) is a religious and philosophical question. But with the establishment of psychologism in the literature, more and more importance began to be attached to Racine's brilliant insights in the field of psychological analysis. So, Balzac, well feeling the philosophical orientation of the tragedy, believing that Phaedra is “the greatest role of the French scene, which Jansenism did not dare to condemn,” emphasized psychologism, referring Phaedra to characters who “give us the key to almost all positions of the human heart, captured by love."
The main sources of the image of Phaedra are the above-mentioned tragedies of Euripides and Seneca.
The image of Phaedra appears in Pradona's tragedy Phaedra, which premiered at the Hotel Genego Theater in Paris three days after the premiere of the racine tragedy. Although Pradon participated in the intrigue of the Duchess of Bouillon to thwart Racine's success, his tragedy was popular for a while. Later, the image of Phaedra was addressed in the dramaturgy of F. Schiller, who reworked Racine's Phaedra for the Weimar Theater, A. Swinburne, G. d "Annunzio, J. Cocteau, in painting by J. J. Lagrené, in poetry - M. Tsvetaeva. Ballets on this plot began to appear from the end of the XVIII century. Special interest present the ballets Phaedra and Hippolyte by K. A. Kavos and P. F. Turik (1821, St. Petersburg, choreographer Ch. Orica (1950, Paris, artist J. Cocteau, choreographer and performer of the part of Hippolyte - S. Lifar, Phaedra - T. Tumanova). The Greek film Phaedra (1962, directed by J. Dassin, M. Mercury as Phaedra) gained fame.
The most significant interpretations of the role of Phaedra in France were created in the 17th century by M. Chanmelet (the first performer), who emphasized the declamation, melodiousness of the verse, in the 18th century by A. Lecouvreur, who emphasized the youth and vulnerability of Phaedra, M. Dumesnil and Cleron, who competed with each other , but strengthened the rationalism of Phaedra's psychology in the spirit of enlightening aesthetics, in the 19th century K. J. R. Duchenois, who defended the classic tradition in the image of Phaedra under the onslaught of romantic trends, E. Rachel, who strengthened the humanity of the heroine, in the 20th century S. Bernard, who gave the image traits of frenzy, morbidity, M. Roche, who played Phaedra for a quarter of a century, arousing sympathy and sympathy for the heroine, but departed from the image of Phaedra - an ancient statue, emphasizing in it the non-Greek, barbaric beginning, M. Belle, whose pernicious passion Phaedra does not arouse sympathy is definitely condemned. The role of Phaedra was performed by Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska, Croatian actress Maria Ruzicka-Strozzi, Austrian actress Ida Roland and many others.
Of the Russian actresses in the role of Phaedra, E. S. Semenova (1823), M. N. Ermolova (1890), A. G. Koonen (1921, Moscow, Chamber Theater, translated by V. Ya. Bryusov, director A. Ya . Tairov).
Text: Racine J. Tragedies. L., 1977. (Lit. monuments).
Vl. A. Lukov
Works and heroes: Heroes.
An excerpt from Zhirmunskaya, all on the topic:
Criminal Phaedra's passion to the stepson carries from the very beginning print on yourself doom: No wonder the first words of Phaedra at the moment of her appearance on the stage are about death. The theme of death permeates the entire tragedy from the first scene - the news of the imaginary death of Theseus - and up to the tragic denouement. Death and the realm of the dead enter the fate of the characters as component their deeds, their families, their home world: Minos, father of Phaedra, judge in realm of the dead; Theseus descends into Hades to help his friend kidnap the wife of Aidoneus, the ruler of the underworld, etc. In the mythological world of Phaedra, that line between the earthly and the other world is erased. In the same way, the genealogy of heroes descending from the gods is no longer perceived as a high honor, an object of pride and vanity (see the replica of Arkas addressed to Agamemnon in the first day, 1st appearance), but as a curse dooming to death, as a legacy of passions, enmity and vengeance of higher, supernatural forces and as a great moral test, which turns out to be too much for a weak mortal. The mythological repertoire of "Phaedra" creates a grandiose cosmic picture of the world, in which the fate of people and the will of the gods are intertwined into one tragic tangle.
The rationalistic rethinking of the Euripides plot, which is invariably mentioned when talking about "Phaedra", concerns only the starting point - the rivalry between Aphrodite and Artemis, the victims of which are Hippolytus and Phaedra. Racine really endure center of gravity to the inner psychological side tragic conflict, but it, in turn, turns out to be due to the chain of circumstances that lie beyond the limits of human will . Jansenist idea of predestination, "grace" descending on a person or bypassing him, clothed in the form of Greek myth, but its essence is preserved. The tragedy of unrequited love, which forms the basis of the dramatic conflict "Andromache", aggravated Here consciousness of their sinfulness, rejection from a moral point of view. This main feature"Phaedras" was immediately perceived and appreciated by Boileau in the words of consolation addressed to his friend after the failure of the tragedy (Epistle VII):
Who has matured Phaedra at least once, who has heard the groans of pain
Queen of the sorrowful, criminal involuntarily ...
From Boileau's point of view, "Phaedra" was perfect embodiment of the basic principle and purpose of tragedy - arouse compassion for the hero, "criminal involuntarily", presenting his guilt as manifestation of human weakness. The same concept underlies Racine's understanding of tragedy. For Racine, Corneille's thesis is unacceptable, which puts forward, along with Aristotelian horror and compassion, a third affect - admiration for the greatness of the hero's soul, even if this greatness is manifested in immoralism. The principle of ethical justification of the hero, formulated in the preface to "Andromache" with reference to Aristotle, gets its logical conclusion in "Phaedra". Phaedra's passion and her wines are exceptional, But Racine fixes attention not on this exceptional, but on the universal in the mental suffering and doubts of the heroine. The moral and philosophical idea of human sinfulness in general receives its artistic embodiment on the basis of the classic principle of typification and plausibility. This is also the reason for those partial deviations from Euripides that Racine undertook, as always scrupulously stipulating them in the preface.
The introduction of a new character, Arikia, proved to be especially fruitful, providing grateful material for a deeper and more dynamic disclosure of Phaedra's spiritual struggle.
17. "Andromache"
Brief retelling:
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Orleans. I am a worm, but this is mine best work, and the least of your virtues - a delicate artistic taste - will allow you to appreciate it.
First preface: I took an old well-known story and depicted it. Only my Pyrrhus is a little more humane than that of Seneca and Virgil, otherwise everything is exactly repeated.
Second preface. It begins with a long quotation from the Aeneid, outlining the plot: after the death of Hector, Andromache, captured, lives with Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles. Pyrrhus leaves for Sparta to marry Hermione, and Orestes, who loved Hermione, kills him. The character and behavior of Hermione, - Racine writes further, - is the only thing that I borrowed from Euripides. I also extended the life of Astyanax - the son of Andromache - but I will be forgiven for this, because, according to the latest racial theories, i.e. "Franciade"
Ronsard, the Aryans, that is, the French kings, are his descendants.
Characters- children of characters familiar to us from the first semester. In addition to Andromache, there are: Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, Orestes, son of Agamemnon, Hermione, daughter of Helen. Plus, each character relies on a friend-teacher-confidante. The action takes place in Butrot, the capital of Epirus (north-west of Greece, Pyrrhus' possession), in one of the halls of the royal palace.
The first phenomenon: Orestes and his friend Pylades are talking. Orestes went on a military campaign, hoping that he would be killed. He wasn't killed and now he wants Hermione's hand. The problem is that Hermione is Pyrrhus' fiancee. Pyrrhus, however, loves Andromache, but she does not love him, so he can marry Hermione, which cannot be allowed. Orestes recalls his mission: to announce to Pyrrhus that the Greeks will declare war on him because he harbors his son Hector. The second phenomenon: Pyrrhus declares that Astyanax is his trophy and that he will not give it to anyone, but he does not want to execute him: there is no mood. Orestes: Riot on the ship?! And finally, you are already almost Menelaus's father-in-law, for you will marry Hermione. Pyrrhus: I've said everything, get out, better chat with Hermione. Orestes comes out, and the teacher Phoenix says to Pyrrhus: don't you think that he will steal Hermione from you? Pyrrhus: she will take her away - well, the dog is with her. Enter Andromache. Pyrrhus: Because of your child, the Greeks will attack us. Can we kill him? No? Great, I'm ready to fight the Greeks because of you, only you will have to pay. Marry me. We will restore the former power of Troy and make Astyanax its ruler. Andromache: I don't want to go to Troy, let Astyanax be just my son. During the storming of Troy, you, Pyrrhus, killed all my relatives. I'd rather go to Hades to Hector than be your wife. Pyrrhus: Get out and think better.
Action two. Hermione is talking to her confidante Cleon. Father Menelaus ordered her, in case of stubbornness of Pyrrhus, to return to Hellas with Orestes, so that the Greek troops could calmly bomb the rebellious Epirus, where they hide Astyanax, who, although he walks under the table, is worse than the Iraqi nuclear weapons . Orestes enters: when you rejected me, I went to the Crimea to fight the Scythians so that they would kill me. They didn't kill me, so I ask for your hand again. Hermione: why did you come here? Persuade Pyrrhus? Go ahead and persuade. Orestes: already talked. Pyrrhus is ready to start a war because of the son of Andromache. Hermione: Oh shit! Orestes: before sailing back, I would like to hear from you once again a refusal. Hermione: No, I kind of love you. Orestes: I don't believe it. Hermione: I love it. Orestes: You don't love anything. Hermione convinces him that she hates Pyrrhus, Orestes climbs into the bottle and proves that she still loves Pyrrhus. Orestes, left alone: fine, Pyrrhus chooses Andromache, and I will leave here with Hermione. Wonderful! Pyrrhus enters and says that he does not want war and prefers to betray Andromache to the Greeks. And you, Orestes, find Hermione and tell her that we are getting married tomorrow. Pyrrhus speaks with Phoenix and decides that the wedding should take place today, and the child should be given away. Andromache will die of grief, and so it is necessary for her, for she does not respect the king. At this time, Orestes complains to Pylades that he would rather die or kill someone than allow this wedding. Then he complains about fate: "No matter how virtuous I am on the road, I am pursued by ruthless gods." Pylades offers him help in kidnapping Hermione if Pyrrhus does not give her up himself. Hermione doesn't seem to mind. Then Andromache comes and asks her to help her escape with her son to some deserted island, just to stay alive. Hermione: All questions to Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus: I said no, so no. Itself asked for it, there was nothing to show off, it was necessary to respect me. Here Andromache says something quite soulful, in the spirit that Astyanax is the only thing for which she lives. Pyrrhus asks Phoenix to come out and says: well, you pity me. Come to the temple today to get married, and you will be happy. And no nonsense, otherwise I will execute the child in front of you. Andromache, left alone with her friend Sephiza: it seems that she will have to sacrifice a child. Sefiza: Hector wouldn't want you to sacrifice him for loyalty. Andromache: Are you asking me to marry him? He literally killed my entire family in front of my eyes. Sefiza: if you resist, you will also chop up the child. Andromache hesitates for a long time and agrees. Then he invents a trick: I will hand over my son to Pyrrhus and, as soon as he swears to take care of him, I will stab myself with a dagger. Sefiza: Then I'll die too. Andromache: No, you will not die, but you will remain to raise Astyanax. Let him grow up modest, do not forget about the exploits of his father and the sacrifice of his mother. Let him not take it into his head to take revenge on Greece or Epirus, but continue the race and restore Troy. Hermione Orestu: Do you love me? Prove it. Revenge Pyrrhus for my suffering. Orestes: excellent, we will arrange a war, and then there will be hell, in comparison with which the disasters of Troy will fade. Hermione: No, I want you to slaughter Pyrrhus yourself. Orestes: um, well, actually he is a king, and I am a peaceful ambassador ... Hermione: hurry up, otherwise I will change my mind and fall in love with Pyrrhus. Bear in mind that today he is married to Andromache, and sent all his guards to guard Astyanax. So don't miss the moment. If you're afraid to kill yourself, set your people on. If you don't kill him, I will, but after that I will kill myself. Orestes: okay, don't boil, I'll kill him. Pyrrhus to Hermione: know that, as much as I'm sorry, I'm marrying Andromache. Hermione: Great. You destroyed Troy and brutally slaughtered the population, then for the sake of your son Hector you betrayed Hellas; loving Andromache, dragged me from Greece to here; for a long time he could not decide who he loved, then he insulted the princess (that is, me) and placed a captive on the throne. You are a bastard, and you will be rewarded for it. Phoenix: Heard she's threatening you. Orestes is with her, he has an armed retinue .. Pyrrhus: go guard the child. Hermione, left alone: but I once loved him .. But no, he dumped me, so let him die. Cleon's friend comes to her and reports: Pyrrhus and his bride went to the temple. Hermione: So is he completely calm? Kleona: Absolutely proud of myself. And Orestes with his people took up positions in the temple, but he himself does not know whether he decides to kill. Hermione: Oh, he's a coward! I myself will now go and slaughter one of them, and then myself. Orestes enters: pack your things, the ship is already under sail. My men, though few in number, bravely butchered Pyrrhus as soon as he swore allegiance to Andromache and Astyanax. Hermione: get out, villain! How dare you kill our king? Who gave you permission?! Orestes: uh, you kind of asked for it yourself.. Hermione: "Did you believe the words that a woman in love was prompted by her darkened mind?" I could still restore power over Pyrrhus, and you came and ruined everything. It's all because of you. And I never set foot in Greece again, because freaks like you are sometimes born there.
Orestes, left alone: that is, I am to blame for everything? Wow! Pylades enters: Andromache calls on the crowd to avenge Pyrrhus, and the crowd seems to obey. We must get out of here before it's too late. And Hermione, looking insane, stabbed herself and fell on his corpse. Orestes begins to see the living Pyrrhus, Hermione, coils of snakes and other glitches, then he loses consciousness, and Pylades, taking advantage of this, calls to grab him and drape. The ticket itself (meaningful copy-paste of the prefaces of Racine and the publisher and Plavskin's textbook): The tragedy was first presented by the troupe of the Hotel Burgundy (the main Parisian theater) in the Queen's chambers on November 17, 1667. The first edition appeared in early 1668. The huge success of Andromache was compared with the success of Corneille's Sid, thereby recognizing the epoch-making significance of Andromache in stories French theater. In Russia, "Andromache" was staged on the St. Petersburg stage in a Russian translation by D. I. Khvostov (apparently, partly revised by N. I. Gnedich). The direct sources of the play were the tragedy of Seneca "The Trojan Women" and the story of Aeneas from Book III. Aeneid by Virgil. Plus the tragedies of Euripides "Andromache", "Trojan women", "Phoenician women", "Hecuba", "Orestes", "Iphigenia Taurida".
In Andromache, the cementing ideological core is the clash of rational and moral principles with elemental passion, which brings the destruction of the moral personality and its physical death. The three main characters become victims of their passions, the unreasonableness of which they are aware of, but which they are unable to overcome. Fourth - Andromache as moral personality stands outside the passions and, as it were, above them, but like a prisoner is drawn into the whirlpool of other people's passions, playing with her fate and her life little son. Andromache has no power to make a free and reasonable decision, since Pyrrhus imposes on her an unacceptable choice in any case. The paradox of the conflict lies in the fact that externally free and powerful enemies of Andromache are internally enslaved by their passions. In fact, their fate depends on which of the two decisions she makes. They are not as free in their choice as she is. This mutual dependence of the characters determines the intensity of the action. For Racine's contemporaries, a stable stereotype of behavior, fixed by etiquette and tradition, was of great importance. The heroes of Andromache violate it every minute: Pyrrhus has lost interest in Hermione and is playing a humiliating double game with her in the hope of breaking Andromache's resistance. Hermione, forgetting her dignity, is ready to forgive Pyrrhus and become his wife, knowing that he loves another. Orestes, sent to demand the life of Astyanax from Pyrrhus, does everything to prevent his mission from succeeding. Heroes act contrary to the mind, but the mind remains the highest moral norm. Racine embodies the idea of Pascal: the strength of the human mind in the awareness of its weakness. The idea of a person subject to passions belongs to the Jansenist worldview
18. Britannic
The Tragedy of Jean Racine 1669 France
There lived Nero and his mother Agrippina. Nero was Caesar, but his pope was Domitius, who did not rule Rome. When her first husband died, Agrippina clung to Claudius, despite the fact that he was her uncle, married him, persuading the senate to change the laws a little so that this would not be considered incest. Grasping this bed began to spend his money. She threw parties, gave gifts, everything in order to attract the courtiers to her side. Claudius adopted Nero at the persuasion of Pallas, and thereby stole the throne from his son from his first marriage, Britannicus, because he was younger and in general. When he realized what he had done, he caught himself, but it was too late, everyone was on the side of Agrippina. And so he died. Agripina did not let her son say goodbye to him and did not tell anyone about the death. Burr persuaded the troops to her side, and they swore allegiance to Nero. That's when he became caesar. Agrippina gave him Seneca and Bura as mentors, who were not courtiers, but were in disgrace at that moment, they returned them. Three years of class rule, and then the tragedy began. Agrippina tells her confidante Albina that Nero no longer respects her, stopped honoring her, stopped obeying her, and in general, some Burr does not let her see her son. He thinks that he has planned something unkind and will become an evil ruler. “What Augustus finished, so he began, Albina, but no matter how the future trampled on the future and did not complete what Augustus began with.” She remembers that she knocked out Octavia, who was promised to Silan, as a bride for him, says that Nero stole Junia, beloved B, and it seems to her that he did it simply out of harm. After her brother Silan committed suicide due to the fact that Octavia was married to Nero, she almost went into exile. Only Britannic came to visit her. She is afraid that he will remove Britannic as the only rival, and will try to protect him (brother, after all!), But he is even more afraid that she will be removed for this. Nero falls in love with Junia when the convoy brings her to the palace, invites her to marry (divorce Octavia like a poor woman), but she loves Britain and does not want to be with him .. Nero makes her tell B that she does not love him, hides behind the curtain and watching. Narcissus, a friend of Britannicus and a spy for Nero, adds fuel to the fire and says that Junia traded him for clothes and a palace, he believes. And Agrippina promised to marry them, she is looking for a meeting with her son. Burr tries to tell Nero that he is wrong and that he should think with his head that if he does not see this Junia for three days, everything will pass, but N does not listen to him. Burr persuades Agrippina to talk calmly with her son, without reproaches, to justify herself, she is hysterical, they say, who are you to tell me, threatens to tell how N came to power and surrender everyone. Burr says it's useless, the people won't understand. Junia will explain to B that she was forced to talk to him like that and they have love again. In a conversation with neon, Agrippina tells him. Who put it at all, shames him and he agrees to her terms. 1) make peace with Britannicus, 2) give freedom of choice to Julia's husband, 3) return Pallas from exile, whom he himself recently sent there, suspecting of treason, 4) and so that Burr does not slam the door in her face when she wants to talk to him. Nero, who used to be afraid that his mother would overthrow him and install Britannicus (not in vain, by the way, he was afraid, she was like that, she could) stopped being afraid, believed her. And Bura ceased to suspect. But hide the bad and decided to kill Britannicus. Burr, when he found out, fell on his knees, said, if so, then pierce my chest with a knife, I cannot live with such a Caesar. He was moved (and fratricide .. not good after all) and did not. And the daffodil, you bastard, is right there. He says that you, like a mumble, have become limp in front of your mother, she boasts of everyone about her power over you, here, take it, I have poison! Nero promises to think on the way to the feast in honor of them with Britannic trying on. And Britannicus at this time is happily chatting with Junia, who has bad premonitions. Crying, begging him not to go. It still goes. Narcissus poured poison, drank for friendship, for brotherhood, he died immediately. Everyone is in a panic. Nero is calm, says “he has been ill for a long time” (more precisely, “What are you worried about? And on your own grief, Britannicus has been subject to this ailment since childhood”). Narcissus tried to put on a mournful air, but in vain. Agrippina accuses her son, and Narcissus says, they say, we only killed a traitor! He did not need Junia, but the throne, it turns out. Burr is in shock, decides to commit suicide ("meet death with a smile"), but stays on stage. Junia went to the vestals, so as not to get to Caesar, Narcissus wanted to recapture her, but he was filled up. Nero is sad. Albina calls on her mistress to stop Nero, but she already realized that such a monster cannot be stopped now, but everyone hopes that “perhaps he will now go a different way and change under the burden of suffering?” and Burr answers her "Oh, if he did not commit new atrocities!".
Racine himself rated the Britannic tragedy as his best work. None of the plays had so much criticism and at the same time so many applause. He wrote it after reading Tacinus, slightly changing even his realities (he came up with Junia, threw Britannica 17 instead of 15 for a couple of years). The tragedy did not leave the stage, the courtiers were delighted. “And if of all the stories I have written, at least one is somewhat durable and deserves praise, then, according to
unanimous recognition of connoisseurs, such a play is the "Britanic" "
Further I will quote Racine himself about the characters, because I would not say better anyway. Quotes from the prefaces (there are 2 of them + an admiring appeal to the Duke de Chevreuse, who, it seems to me, was his sponsor, where it is written that it seems to be dedicated to him).
I will begin with Nero, recalling in advance that he is presented to me for the first time and, as you know, the cloudless years of his reign. Therefore, I had no right to portray him in such a way. a bad person what he later became. But I did not portray him as a virtuous person either, for he never was. Nero has not yet killed his mother, wife, mentors, but the seeds of all these atrocities are ripening in him, he already wants to free himself from prohibitions, hates his loved ones, but covers up hatred with feigned caresses. In short, this is a monster in its infancy, which, not yet daring to openly manifest itself, tries to embellish its evil deeds. He did not tolerate Octavia, who was distinguished by a rare cordiality and kindness. I make Narcissus his confidant, relying on Tacitus, who says that Nero was very angry at the death of Narcissus, because the vices of this freedman were extremely similar to his own. To this vile court I oppose a truly decent person in the person of Burr, giving him preference over Seneca, and for this reason: both of them were mentors of the young Nero, Burr in military affairs, Seneca in the sciences, both gained wide popularity, one - in his own military experience and strict morals, the other - eloquence and a pleasant turn of mind. All their strength was devoted to the struggle with the arrogance and ferocity of Agrippina, Her character I tried to describe with particular care, and my tragedy is as much the tragedy of Agrippina's disgrace as the death of Britannicus. This death shocked her, and Tacitus says that, judging by her horror and dismay, she is as not to blame for it as Octavia. In Britannica, she saw her last hope, and his villainous death gave rise to a premonition of even greater atrocity in her. (that she will also be killed) The age of Britannicus is so well known to everyone that I could not portray him otherwise than as a young scion of the imperial house, endowed with great courage, a capacity for great love and straightforwardness - qualities that generally distinguish youth. He was fifteen years old, and they said that he was gifted with a living mind - is this true, or people touched by his unfortunate fate wanted to believe this, but he died before he had time to prove his abilities. Junia becomes a vestal for me, although Aulus Gellius reports that the vestals accepted girls no younger than six years old and no older than ten. But in my tragedy, the people take Junia under their protection. To the reviews of critics that the hero was too young, he answered: “This hero should not be perfect, moreover, let him be marked by some imperfections. Here I will also add that a youth of seventeen, a scion of the imperial house, endowed with great courage, a capacity for great love, frankness and trustfulness - qualities generally inherent in youth - can certainly, in my opinion, arouse sympathy for himself. And I don’t need more.” Junia is a pure, bright, untouched, unspoiled by society girl who fell in love with Britannicus, sympathizing with him. For B, there was no greater happiness than to marry her. He didn't even need a throne. At the heart of the tragedy is the first murder of Nero, which revealed all the horrors of his reign. Racine sees him as a monster, not here showed him as a monster in the bud, not as a politician, but as a person in the family circle. He himself foresees his meanness, wants to abandon this undertaking, but he is unable to - passion has overshadowed his mind.
19. "Phaedra"
Brief retelling:
The action takes place in the Peloponnesian city of Troezen.
Hippolytus, the son of the Athenian king Theseus, goes in search of his father, who has been wandering somewhere for six months. Hippolytus is the son of an Amazon. The new wife of Theseus Phaedra (born from the sun god: Pasiphae - daughter of Helios, father - Minos - judge in Hades) disliked him, as everyone believes, at one time she persuaded Theseus to send him from Athens to Troezen, but it turns out that now she and her sons come to this city. Phaedra is ill with an incomprehensible disease and "craves to die." She talks about her suffering, which the gods sent her, about the fact that there is a conspiracy around her and they “decided to exterminate” her. Fate and the wrath of the gods aroused in her some kind of sinful feeling, which terrifies her herself and which she is afraid to speak openly about. She makes every effort to overcome the dark passion, but in vain. Phaedra thinks about death and waits for it, not wanting to reveal her secret to anyone.
Oenon's nurse fears that the queen's mind is troubled, for Phaedra herself does not know what she is saying. Oenona reproaches her that Phaedra wants to offend the gods by interrupting her "life thread", and urges the queen to think about the future of her own children, that the "arrogant Hippolytus" born of the Amazon will quickly take away their power from them. In response, Phaedra declares that her "sinful life is already too long", but her sin is not in her actions, the heart is to blame for everything - it is the cause of the torment. However, Phaedra refuses to say what her sin is and wants to take her secret to the grave. But he cannot stand it and confesses to Enone that he loves Hippolyte. She is horrified. As soon as Phaedra became the wife of Theseus and saw Hippolytus, how “now a flame, now a chill” tormented her body. This is the "fire of the all-powerful Aphrodite", the goddess of love. Phaedra tried to propitiate the goddess - “she erected a temple for her, decorated it”, made sacrifices, but in vain, neither incense nor blood helped. Then Phaedra began to avoid Hippolytus and play the role of an evil stepmother, forcing her son to leave his father's house. But all in vain.
The maid Panopa reports that news has been received that Phaedra's husband Theseus has died. Therefore, Athens is worried - who should be king: the son of Phaedra or the son of Theseus Hippolytus, born of a captive Amazon? Enona reminds Phaedra that the burden of power now rests on her and she has no right to die, since then her son will die.
Arikia, a princess from the Athenian royal family of Pallantes (born from the goddess of the earth Gaia), whom Theseus deprived of power, learns of his death. She is worried about her fate. Theseus kept her captive in a palace in the city of Troezen. Hippolytus is elected ruler of Troezen, Arikia's confidante believes that he will free the princess, since Hippolytus is not indifferent to her. Arikia was captivated in Hippolyta by spiritual nobility. Keeping with the illustrious father "in high resemblance, he did not inherit the low features of his father." Theseus, on the other hand, was notorious for seducing many women.
Hippolyte comes to Arikia and announces to her that he cancels his father's decree on her captivity and gives her freedom. Athens needs a king and the people put forward three candidates: Hippolytus, Arikiy and Phaedra's son. However, Hippolytus, according to the ancient law, if he is not born a Hellenic, cannot own the Athenian throne. Arikia, on the other hand, belongs to an ancient Athenian family and has all the rights to power. And the son of Phaedra will be the king of Crete - so Hippolytus decides, remaining the ruler of Troezen. He decides to go to Athens to convince the people of Arikia's right to the throne. Arikia cannot believe that the son of her enemy is giving her the throne. Hippolyte replies that he had never known what love was before, but when he saw it, he “resigned himself and put on love fetters.” He thinks about the princess all the time.
Phaedra, meeting with Hippolytus, says that she is afraid of him: now that Theseus is gone, he can bring down his anger on her and her son, taking revenge for being expelled from Athens. Hippolyte is indignant - he could not act so lowly. Also, the rumor of Theseus' death may be false. Phaedra, unable to control her feelings, says that if Hippolytus had been older when Theseus arrived in Crete, then he too could have performed the same feats - to kill the Minotaur and become a hero, and she, like Ariadne, would have given him a thread so as not to get lost in the Labyrinth, and would link her fate with him. Hippolytus is at a loss, it seems to him that Phaedra is daydreaming, mistaking him for Theseus. Phaedra twists his words and says that she loves not the old Theseus, but the young one, like Hippolyta, loves him, Hippolyta, but does not see her fault in that, since she has no power over herself. She is a victim of divine wrath, it is the gods who sent her love that torments her. Phaedra asks Hippolyte to punish her for her criminal passion and get the sword from its scabbard. Hippolyte runs in terror, oh terrible secret no one should know, not even his mentor Teramen.
A messenger comes from Athens to hand Phaedra the reins of government. But the queen does not want power, she does not need honors. She cannot rule the country when her own mind is not subject to her, when she is not in control of her feelings. She had already revealed her secret to Hippolyte, and hope for a reciprocal feeling arose in her. Hippolytus is a Scythian by mother, says Enon, savagery is in his blood - "he rejected the female sex, he does not want to know him." However, Phaedra wants to awaken love in "wild as a forest" Hippolyta, no one has yet spoken to him about tenderness. Phaedra asks Oenone to tell Hippolyte that she gives him all power and is ready to give her love.
Oenone returns with the news that Theseus is alive and will soon be in the palace. Phaedra is horrified, for she is afraid that Hippolyte will betray her secret and expose her deception to her father, saying that her stepmother is dishonoring the royal throne. She thinks of death as salvation, but fears for the fate of her children. Oenone offers to protect Phaedra from dishonor and slander Hippolytus in front of his father, saying that he desired Phaedra. She undertakes to arrange everything herself in order to save the honor of the lady "in defiance of her conscience", for "so that honor is ... spotless for everyone, and it is not a sin to sacrifice virtue."
Phaedra meets with Theseus and tells him that he is offended, that she is not worth his love and tenderness. He asks Hippolytus in bewilderment, but the son replies that his wife can reveal the secret to him. And he himself wants to leave in order to perform the same feats as his father. Theseus is surprised and angry - returning to his home, he finds his relatives in confusion and anxiety. He feels that something terrible is being hidden from him.
Enona slandered Hippolytus, and Theseus believed, remembering how pale, embarrassed and evasive his son was in a conversation with him. He drives Hippolytus away and asks the god of the sea Poseidon, who promised him to fulfill his first will, to punish his son, Hippolytus is so amazed that Phaedra blames him for a criminal passion that he cannot find words to justify - his "tongue has ossified." Although he admits that he loves Arikia, his father does not believe him.
Phaedra tries to persuade Theseus not to harm his son. When he tells her that Hippolytus is allegedly in love with Arikia, Phaedra is shocked and offended that she had a rival. She did not imagine that someone else could awaken love in Hippolyta. The queen sees the only way out for herself - to die. She curses Oenone for vilifying Hippolyte.
Meanwhile, Hippolyte and Arikia decide to flee the country together.
Theseus tries to convince Arikia that Hippolytus is a liar and she listened to him in vain. Arikia answers him that the king cut off the heads of many monsters, but "fate saved one monster from the formidable Theseus" - this is a direct allusion to Phaedra and her passion for Hippolytus. Theseus does not understand the hint, but begins to doubt whether he has learned everything. He wants to interrogate Enona again, but learns that the queen drove her away and she threw herself into the sea. Phaedra herself rushes about in madness. Theseus orders to call his son and prays to Poseidon that he does not fulfill his desire.
However, it's too late - Teramen brings the terrible news that Hippolytus has died. He was riding a chariot along the shore, when suddenly an unprecedented monster appeared from the sea, “a beast with the muzzle of a bull, large-lobed and horned, and with a body covered with yellowish scales.” Everyone rushed to run, and Hippolyte threw a spear at the monster and pierced the scales. The dragon fell under the feet of the horses, and they suffered from fear. Hippolyte could not hold them back, they raced without a road, over the rocks. Suddenly the axis of the chariot broke, the prince got tangled in the reins, and the horses dragged him along the ground strewn with stones. His body turned into a continuous wound, and he died in the arms of Teramen. Before his death, Hippolytus said that his father had brought charges against him in vain, and asked for freedom for Arikia, but did not have time to finish.
Theseus is horrified, he blames Phaedra for the death of his son. She admits that Hippolyte was innocent, that it was she who was "by the will of higher powers ... ignited by incestuous irresistible passion." Enona, saving her honor, slandered Hippolytus. Oenone is now gone, and Phaedra, having removed her innocent suspicion, ends her earthly torment by taking poison. Theseus repents and recognizes Arikia as his daughter.
"Phaedra" (1677) - the most famous tragedy of Racine, was written when Racine's theatrical success reached its apogee. She became turning point in his fate, actually drew a line under his work as a theatrical author. Source: Hippolytus by Euripides. The play failed due to intrigue.
In terms of its moral issues, Phaedra is closest to Andromache. The strength and weakness of a person, criminal passion and at the same time the consciousness of one's guilt appear in an extreme form. Through all the tragedy theme of self-judgment and supreme judgment created by the deity. Mythological motifs and images that serve as its embodiment are closely intertwined with Christian teaching. Phaedra's criminal passion for her stepson Hippolytus bears the stamp of doom from the very beginning. Motive of death pervades the whole tragedy, starting from the first scene - the news of the imaginary death of Theseus until the tragic denouement - the death of Hippolytus and the suicide of Phaedra. Death and the realm of the dead are constantly present in the minds and fate of the characters as an integral part of their deeds, their kind, their home world (Minos is the judge in the realm of the dead, Theseus descends into Hades, etc.). In the mythologized world of Phaedra, the line between the earthly and other worlds is erased, and the divine origin of her kind is realized as a curse that brings death, as a legacy of enmity and revenge of the gods, as a great moral test that is beyond the power of a weak mortal. Diverse repertoire mythological motifs , with which the monologues of Phaedra and other characters are saturated, performs a philosophical and psychological function (creates a cosmic picture of the world in which the fate of people, their suffering and impulses, the inexorable will of the gods are woven into one tragic ball).
Racine rethought in a rationalistic spirit the rivalry between Aphrodite and Artemis, whose victims are Phaedra and Hippolyte. Racine shifts the center of gravity to the inner, psychological side of the tragic conflict, but even in him this conflict turns out to be due to circumstances that lie beyond the limits of human will.
In "Phaedra" tragedy is determined by unrequited love, consciousness of one's sinfulness, rejection, heavy moral guilt. Boileau: "Phaedra" is the perfect embodiment main goal tragedies - to cause compassion for the "criminal involuntarily", showing his guilt as a manifestation of the weakness inherent in man. Putting his heroine in an exceptional situation, Racine fixes attention not on this exceptional, but highlights the universal, typical, "plausible".
This goal is also served by some private deviations from Euripides, which Racine stipulates in the preface. So, a new interpretation of Hippolytus - no longer a virgin and a misogynist, but a faithful and respectful lover - required the introduction of a fictitious person, Princess Arikia, persecuted for dynastic reasons by Theseus, => fertile material for a deeper and more dynamic disclosure of Phaedra's spiritual struggle: only after learning about the existence happy rival, she makes the final decision to slander Hippolytus in front of Theseus. Characteristic of hierarchical representations of the 17th century. - another deviation from the source - in Racine's play, the idea to slander Hippolytus in order to protect the honor of Phaedra comes not to the queen, but to her nurse Oenone, a woman of "low rank", because, according to Racine, the queen is not capable of such a base act. In the poetics of classicism, the hierarchy of genres corresponded to the hierarchy of characters, and, consequently, the hierarchy of passions and vices.
After "Phaedra" in the dramatic work of Racine comes a long break.
New Critique of Racine
It is enough to visit today's Greece (the scene of the tragedies) to understand the cruel power of small spaces and to realize how Racine's tragedy in its idea of \u200b\u200b"constraint" corresponds to these places, which R. has never seen. Troezen, where Phaedra dies, is a mound scorched by the sun with rubble fortifications.
Three tragic places .
peace- the abode of Power and its essence, because Power is a secret, deadly because it is invisible. Peace borders on the second tragic place, which is Vestibule, or Anterior. They are waiting here. The front one (which represents the stage itself) is an intermediate zone, a conducting medium; it participates in both internal and external space. Sandwiched between peace (place of action) and Peace (place of silence), Front is the place of the word: Here tragic hero expresses his motives.
Between the Peace and the Front there is a tragic object - the Door. At the Door they watch, they tremble; to pass through it is both a temptation and a crime: the whole fate of the power of Agrippina is decided before the door of Nero. The Door has an active substitute, the Veil, the symbol of the hidden Sight. Consequently, the Anterior is a place-object, surrounded on all sides by a space-subject. The third tragic place - External world. There is no transition between the Front World and the Outer World: the fortress walls are a balcony hanging directly over the battle, and if there are secret ways [exit], then they no longer belong to the tragic world; the secret path is already an escape. The line separating tragedy from non-tragedy is extremely thin., almost abstract; tragedy is both a prison and a refuge from impurity, from everything that is not a tragedy.
CHAPTER I
1.1 short biography J.Rasina……………………………………………6
1.2 The plot originality of "Phaedra" by Racine…………………………...9
Conclusion to Chapter I……………………………………………………………….16
CHAPTER II THE IMAGE OF PHEDRA BY JEAN RACINE “PHEDRA”
2.1 Racine’s creation of the image of Phaedra………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Conclusion to Chapter II………………………………………………………………23
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………24
REFERENCES………………………………………………...26
INTRODUCTION
Relevance of the topic. "Phaedra" is the pinnacle of Racine's dramaturgy. It surpasses all his other plays with the beauty of the verse and deep penetration into the recesses. human soul. As before, there is no conflict here between rational principles and inclinations of the heart. Phaedra is shown as a highly sensual woman, but her love for Hippolytus is poisoned for her by the consciousness of her sinfulness. The production of Phaedra became a turning point in the creative life of Racine.
To see what are the changes introduced by Racine, and most importantly, what is their artistic function, it is necessary to recall those ancient tragedies that were written on the same mythological plot and which became the direct source of this work. It must be said that the popularity of "Phaedra" among readers, viewers and specialists in philology does not eliminate, but multiplies the controversy surrounding it.
Noting the fateful predestination of Phaedra's fate, many contemporaries associated the philosophical content of the tragedy with the Jansenist concept of man, repeating the formulation of the ideological leader of Jansenism Antoine Arnault: "Phaedra is a Christian who has not been overshadowed by grace." But predestination should be understood in a broader sense, as a consequence of the logic of the artistic world built by Racine, fundamentally researched by R. Barth. Racine deprives of decisive importance the motive of the dispute between Artemis and Aphrodite, which served as the source of the conflict. At the heart of the passion of the Racine heroine is a fascination with the past (Phaedra tells Hippolytus that she is subdued by those of his features that remind her of the young Theseus). Characters are essentially functions of the situation. Their individual differences are subject to Racine's relations of power (strength): if she is personified by a woman, she is equal to a man in her plot role.
The impossibility of acting is the essence of tragedy. What is happening unfolds not so much in action as in the story. Pictures of important events for the hero - Phaedra's memories of the young Theseus, about relations with Hippolytus, Teramen's story about the death of Hippolytus, etc., reproduced in monologues - are equivalent to reality, and the inability to speak is equivalent to death.
The artistic attitude of Racine was formed in conditions when the political resistance of the feudal aristocracy was suppressed and it turned into a court nobility submissive to the will of the monarch, deprived of creative life goals. In the tragedies of Racine, images of people corrupted by power, engulfed in the flames of unbridled passions, people hesitating, rushing about, come to the fore. Racine's dramaturgy is dominated not so much by a political as by a moral criterion. An analysis of the devastating passions raging in the hearts of crowned heroes is illuminated in Racine's tragedies by the light of an all-pervading reason and a lofty humanistic ideal.
The art of classicism is often one-sidedly and superficially perceived as if rational, static and cold in its ideal harmony. The truth is more difficult. Behind the balance and refinement of the form of Racine's tragedies, behind the images of people - carriers of an exquisite civilization, behind the poet's impulse towards beautiful and pure spiritual harmony, at the same time, the tension of burning passions, the image of sharply dramatic conflicts, irreconcilable spiritual clashes are hidden.
Herzen points to Racine's enormous role in spiritual formation subsequent generations, resolutely opposing those who would like to forcibly limit the playwright to the framework of a conventional and gallant court civilization. Herzen notes: “Racine is found at every turn from 1665 until the Restoration. All these strong people of the 18th century were brought up on it. Were they all wrong? - and among these strong people XVIII century called Robespierre.
The great playwright embodied in his work many remarkable features of the national artistic genius of France. Although in the posthumous fate of Racine, periods of ebb and flow of glory alternated (the critical attitude towards the work of the playwright reached its limit in the era of romanticism), humanity will never stop turning to the images he created, trying to penetrate deeper into the mystery of the beautiful, better to know the secrets of the human soul.
^ The purpose of the work - to consider the image of Phaedra in the most complete way in the work of J. Racine "Phaedra".
Tasks, set when writing the work and helping to reveal the goal:
1. Consider a brief biography of J. Racine and the plot originality of "Phaedra" by J. Racine;
2. Analyze the image of Phaedra in the work of J. Racine "Phaedra"
^
CHAPTER I
1.1 Brief biography of J. Racine
Jean Racine (December 21, 1639, Ferte-Milon, County of Valois, now the Department of Ain, - April 21, 1699, Paris), French playwright, member of the French Academy (1673). Son of an official. Moving away from the Jansenists, in whose schools he was educated, he composed odes, and was close to the court. Early tragedy "Thebaid, or Brothers-enemies" (post. and ed. 1664). Racine's only comedy, The Sutyags (post. 1668, ed. 1669), satirizes the French court. A new page in the history of French drama and theater was written by the tragedy Andromache (posted in 1667, published in 1668). Speaking after Pierre Corneille, Racine created a classicist tragedy of love passions, which brought moral issues to the fore and was distinguished by a penetrating image of a suffering person.
Subtle and precise psychologism reveals the drama of an internally divided personality, torn between duty and passion, love and hatred. Racine most deeply and poetically draws the spiritual world of women - the leading characters in his works.
The poet's tragedies are built naturally and simply, obeying internal logic the feelings of the characters. Therefore, characters and the word acquire especially great importance in Racine, while the external action is reduced almost to nothing and easily fits into the framework of the three unities. At the same time, this strictly organized form is extremely saturated with passions raging within its framework, blinding a person, turning him, against his own will and reason, into a criminal and a tyrant, a victim of his unbridledness. The ideal heroines of Racine, on the contrary, staunchly resist blind passions and arbitrariness, are ready to sacrifice themselves in order to remain faithful to their moral duty and save their spiritual purity.
The state usually appears in Racine as a despotic principle, close to Eastern tyranny, under whose yoke everything bright and virtuous perishes. Bright political tragedy The poet's Britannicus (post. 1669, ed. 1670) depicts the birth of a tyrant. The noble nature of the absolute monarchy is revealed here especially clearly.
Racino's ideal of self-denial, which expressed the poet's belief in the moral and social necessity of a person limiting his personal aspirations, is most clearly embodied in the tragedy "Berenice" (post. 1670, ed. 1671), which glorifies the renunciation of all its heroes from passion. But here, too, the suffering that the fulfillment of the demands of the state entails is at the center, and the subsequent tragedies of Racine are again built on the conflict between monarchical despotism and its victims (Bayazet, published and ed. 1672; Mithridates, published and ed. 1673; "Iphigenia in Aulis", post. 1674, ed. 1675). In "Phaedra" (post. and ed. 1677)
The vital truth and strength of the passions depicted by Racine had shocked court circles before. They were especially outraged by "Phaedra". Racine was accused of immorality and failed the first productions of the play. He stopped writing for the theatre. This was also connected with the poet's new appeal to Jansenism. Racine returned to dramaturgy after a 12-year break, composing the tragedy Esther (posted and published in 1689) for the pupils of the Saint-Cyr monastery. The poet appealed to religious tolerance. A new genre of religious-political drama was clearly defined in the tragedy on the biblical story "Atholias" (post. 1690, published in 1691), culminating in an armed uprising of the people against the despot ruler. Here the love theme is completely superseded by the current social content. Anticipating the Enlightenment tragedy of the 18th century, Racine remained faithful to the basic principles of his poetics in biblical dramas: plausibility, economy artistic means and etc. noble simplicity the language of Racine is also different. are completing literary activity Racine "Spiritual Songs" (1694) and " Short story Port-Royal" (ed. 1742). The greatest poet of classicism, Racine had a huge impact on all representatives of this trend in his homeland and abroad. His work retained all its significance during the years of the Great french revolution.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, most of Racine's tragedies were translated into Russian. The role of Phaedra became one of the crown roles of E. S. Semenova. The tragedies of Racine were highly appreciated by Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Herzen. In 1921, in a new translation by Valery Bryusov, Phaedra was staged by the Moscow Chamber theater with A. G. Koonen in the title role.
The creative legacy of Racine is quite diverse. His pen also includes the comedy Sutyags (1668), a witty, with elements of buffoonery mockery of judicial procedures and a passion for litigation, a work largely inspired by Aristophanes' Wasps and originally intended for use by actors of the Italian comedy of masks; and poetic works (here it is necessary to mention the cantata "Idyll of the World", created in 1685), and various compositions and sketches - the fruit of the writer's activity as a royal historiographer; and A Brief History of the Port-Royal, written in 1693 in defense of the oppressed Jansenists; and translations from Greek and Latin. However, Racine's immortality was brought by his tragedies.
One of the Soviet specialists in the field of literary theory, S. G. Bocharov, as follows and very successfully defined ideological originality tragedy of French classicism: "The great works of classicism were not court art, they contained not a figurative design of state policy, but a reflection and knowledge of the conflicts of the historical era." What were these collisions? Their content was "not a simple subordination of the personal to the general passion of duty (which would fully satisfy official requirements)", that is, not a moralizing sermon, "but the irreconcilable antagonism of these principles", their irreparable discord. This may well apply to Racine.
The theme of almost all of Racine's great tragedies is blind passion, which sweeps away any moral barriers and leads to inevitable disaster. In Corneille the characters come out of conflict rejuvenated and cleansed, while in Racine they are utterly wrecked. The dagger or poison that ends their earthly existence, on the physical plane, is the result of the collapse that has already occurred on the psychological plane.
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1.2 The plot originality of "Phaedra" Racine
Racine's most famous tragedy, Phaedra (1677), was written at a time when Racine's theatrical success seemed to have reached its apogee. And she also became a turning point in his fate, in fact, drew a line under his work as a theatrical author.
In recent years, a network of intrigues and gossip has been gathering around him, his privileged position and favor of the court towards him were regarded in aristocratic circles as an encroachment on the social hierarchy established for centuries. Indirectly, this reflected the dissatisfaction of the old aristocracy with the new orders that came from the king and were imposed by his bourgeois minister Colbert. Racine and Boileau were regarded as bourgeois upstarts, "the people of Colbert", did not miss the opportunity to show them their disdain and "put them in their place." When, at the end of 1676, it became known that Racine was working on Phaedra, the minor playwright Pradon, who attributed to Racine the failure of his last play, in a short time wrote a tragedy on the same plot, which he proposed to the former troupe of Moliere (Moliere himself was no longer alive). In the XVIII century. Racine's biographers put forward the version that the play was commissioned to Pradon by Racine's main enemies - the Duchess of Bouillon, Cardinal Mazarin's niece, and her brother the Duke of Nevers. There is no documentary evidence of this, but even if Pradon acted independently, he could well count on the support of these influential people. Both premieres were held two days apart in two competing theaters. Although the leading actresses of Moliere's troupe (including his widow Armande) refused to play in Pradon's play, it was a stormy success: the Duchess of Bouillon bought up a large number of seats in the hall; her clack enthusiastically applauded Pradon. The failure of Racine's Phaedra at the Burgundy Hotel was organized in a similar way. Not much time passed, and the critics unanimously paid tribute to Racine's "Phaedra". Pradon, on the other hand, entered the history of literature in the unsightly role of an insignificant intriguer and a puppet in the hands of the mighty of the world this.
In terms of its moral issues, Phaedra is closest to Andromache. The strength and weakness of a person, criminal passion and at the same time the consciousness of one's guilt appear here in an extreme form. The theme of the judgment on oneself and the supreme judgment performed by the deity runs through the whole tragedy. Mythological motifs and images that serve as its embodiment are closely intertwined with Christian teaching in its Jansenist interpretation. Phaedra's criminal passion for her stepson Hippolytus bears the stamp of doom from the very beginning. The motive of death permeates the entire tragedy, starting from the first scene - the news of the imaginary death of Theseus until the tragic denouement - the death of Hippolytus and the suicide of Phaedra. Death and the realm of the dead are constantly present in the minds and fate of the characters as an integral part of their deeds, their family, their home world: Minos, Phaedra's father, is a judge in the realm of the dead; Theseus descends into Hades to kidnap the wife of the lord of the underworld, etc. In the mythologized world of Phaedra, the line between the earthly and other worlds, which was clearly present in Iphigenia, is erased, and the divine origin of her family, which originates from the god of the sun Helios is no longer perceived as a high honor and mercy of the gods, but as a curse that brings death, as a legacy of enmity and revenge of the gods, as a great moral test that is beyond the power of a weak mortal. A diverse repertoire of mythological motifs, which are saturated with the monologues of Phaedra and other characters, performs here not a plot organizing, but rather a philosophical and psychological function: it creates a cosmic picture of the world in which the fate of people, their suffering and impulses, the inexorable will of the gods are woven into one tragic tangle .
A comparison of "Phaedra" with its source - "Hippolytus" by Euripides - shows that Racine rethought in a rationalistic spirit only his initial premise - the rivalry between Aphrodite and Artemis, whose victims are Phaedra and Hippolytus. Racine shifts the center of gravity to the inner, psychological side of the tragic conflict, but even in him this conflict turns out to be due to circumstances that lie beyond the limits of human will. The Jansenist idea of predestination, “grace” here receives a generalized mythological form, through which Christian phraseology nevertheless clearly appears: the father-judge, who awaits a criminal daughter in the kingdom of the dead (IV, 6), is interpreted as an image of God punishing sinners.
Hippolytus, the son of the Athenian king Theseus, goes in search of his father, who has been wandering somewhere for six months. Hippolytus is the son of an Amazon, Theseus' new wife Phaedra disliked him, as everyone believes, and he wants to leave Athens. Phaedra, on the other hand, is ill with an incomprehensible disease and "craves to die." She talks about her suffering, which the gods sent her, about the fact that there is a conspiracy around her and they “decided to exterminate” her. Fate and the wrath of the gods aroused in her some kind of sinful feeling, which terrifies her herself and which she is afraid to speak openly about. She makes every effort to overcome the dark passion, but in vain. Phaedra thinks about death and waits for it, not wanting to reveal her secret to anyone.
Oenon's nurse fears that the queen's mind is troubled, for Phaedra herself does not know what she is saying. Oenone reproaches her that Phaedra wants to offend the gods by interrupting her "life thread", and urges the queen to think about the future of her own children, that the "arrogant Hippolytus" born of the Amazon will quickly take away their power. In response, Phaedra declares that her "sinful life is already too long", but her sin is not in her actions, the heart is to blame for everything - it is the cause of the torment. However, Phaedra refuses to say what her sin is and wants to take her secret to the grave. But he cannot stand it and confesses to Enone that he loves Hippolyte. She is horrified. As soon as Phaedra became the wife of Theseus and saw Hippolytus, how “now a flame, now a chill” tormented her body. This is the "fire of the all-powerful Aphrodite", the goddess of love. Phaedra tried to propitiate the goddess - “she erected a temple for her, decorated it”, made sacrifices, but in vain, neither incense nor blood helped. Then Phaedra began to avoid Hippolytus and play the role of an evil stepmother, forcing her son to leave his father's house. But all in vain.
The maid Panopa reports that news has been received that Phaedra's husband Theseus has died. Therefore, Athens is worried - who should be king: the son of Phaedra or the son of Theseus Hippolytus, born of a captive Amazon. Oenone reminds Phaedra that the burden of power now rests on her and she has no right to die, since then her son will die.
Arikia, a princess from the Athenian royal family of the Pallantes, whom Theseus deprived of power, learns of his death. She is worried about her fate. Theseus kept her captive in a palace in the city of Troezen. Hippolytus is elected ruler of Troezen, and Yemena, Arikia's confidante, believes that he will free the princess, since Hippolytus is not indifferent to her. Arikia was captivated in Hippolyta by spiritual nobility. Keeping with the illustrious father "in high resemblance, he did not inherit the low features of his father." Theseus, on the other hand, was notorious for seducing many women.
Hippolyte comes to Arikia and announces to her that he is canceling his father's decree on her captivity and giving her freedom. The Athenians need a king, and the people put forward three candidates: Hippolytus, Arikiy and Phaedra's son. However, Hippolytus, according to the ancient law, if he is not born a Hellenic, cannot own the Athenian throne. Arikia, on the other hand, belongs to an ancient Athenian family and has all the rights to power. And the son of Phaedra will be the king of Crete - so Hippolytus decides, remaining the ruler of Troezen. He decides to go to Athens to convince the people of Arikia's right to the throne. Arikia cannot believe that the son of her enemy is giving her the throne. Hippolyte answers her that he had never known what love was before, but when he saw her, he “resigned himself and put on love shackles.” He thinks about the princess all the time.
Phaedra, meeting with Hippolytus, says that she is afraid of him: now that Theseus is gone, he can bring down his anger on her and her son, taking revenge for being expelled from Athens. Hippolyte is indignant - he could not act so lowly. Also, the rumor of Theseus' death may be false. Phaedra, unable to control her feelings, says that if Hippolytus had been older when Theseus came to Crete, then he too could have performed the same feats - to kill the Minotaur and become a hero, and she, like Ariadne, would have given him a thread so as not to get lost in the Labyrinth, and would link her fate with him. Hippolytus is at a loss, it seems to him that Phaedra is daydreaming, mistaking him for Theseus. Phaedra twists his words and says that she loves not the current Theseus, but the young one, like Hippolyta, loves him, Hippolyta, but does not see her fault in that, since she has no power over herself. She is a victim of divine wrath, it is the gods who sent her love that torments her. Phaedra asks Hippolyte to punish her for her criminal passion and get the sword from its scabbard. Hippolytus flees in horror, no one should know about the terrible secret, even his mentor Teramen.
A messenger comes from Athens to hand Phaedra the reins of government. But the queen does not want power, she does not need honors. She cannot rule the country when her own mind is not subject to her, when she is not in control of her feelings. She had already revealed her secret to Hippolyte, and hope for a reciprocal feeling arose in her.
Oenone returns with the news that Theseus is alive and will soon be in the palace. Phaedra is horrified, for she is afraid that Hippolyte will betray her secret and expose her deceit to her father, saying that her stepmother is dishonoring the royal throne. She thinks of death as salvation, but fears for the fate of her children. Oenone offers to protect Phaedra from dishonor and slander Hippolytus before his father, saying that he desired Phaedra. She undertakes to arrange everything herself in order to save the honor of the lady “in defiance of her conscience”, for “so that honor is ... spotless for everyone, and it’s not a sin to sacrifice virtue.”
Enona slandered Hippolytus, and Theseus believed, remembering how pale, embarrassed and evasive his son was in a conversation with him. He drives Hippolytus away and asks the god of the sea Poseidon, who promised him to fulfill his first will, to punish his son. Hippolytus is so amazed that Phaedra blames him for a criminal passion that he cannot find words to justify it - his "tongue has become ossified." Although he admits that he loves Arikia, his father does not believe him.
Phaedra tries to persuade Theseus not to harm his son. When he tells her that Hippolytus is allegedly in love with Arikia, Phaedra is shocked and offended that she had a rival. She did not imagine that someone else could awaken love in Hippolyta. The queen sees the only way out for herself - to die. She curses Oenone for vilifying Hippolyte.
Meanwhile, Hippolyte and Arikia decide to flee the country together. Theseus tries to convince Arikia that Hippolytus is a liar and she listened to him in vain. He wants to interrogate Enona again, but learns that the queen drove her away and she threw herself into the sea. Phaedra herself rushes about in madness. Theseus orders to call his son and prays to Poseidon that he does not fulfill his desire.
However, it's too late - Teramen brings the terrible news that Hippolytus has died. He was riding a chariot along the shore, when suddenly an unprecedented monster appeared from the sea, “a beast with the muzzle of a bull, large-lobed and horned, and with a body covered with yellowish scales.” Everyone rushed to run, and Hippolyte threw a spear at the monster and pierced the scales. The dragon fell under the feet of the horses, and they suffered from fear. Hippolyte could not hold them back, they raced without a road, over the rocks. Suddenly the axis of the chariot broke, the prince got tangled in the reins, and the horses dragged him along the ground strewn with stones. His body turned into a continuous wound, and he died in the arms of Teramen. Before his death, Ippolit said that his father had brought charges against him in vain.
Theseus is horrified, he blames Phaedra for the death of his son. She admits that Hippolyte is innocent, that it was she who was "by the will of higher powers ... ignited by an incestuous irresistible passion." Oenone, saving her honor, slandered Hippolyte. Oenone is now gone, and Phaedra, having removed suspicions from her innocent stepson, ends her earthly torment by taking poison.
Conclusion to chapter I
In Phaedra, the author contrasts the strength and weakness of a person, criminal passion and, at the same time, the consciousness of his guilt. In the tragedy of Racine, the theme of the judgment on oneself and the supreme judgment performed by the deity passes.
Racine with great force revealed the tragedy of a highly moral woman, leading a hard struggle with the criminal passion that overcomes her. The greatest tragedy of the poet testified to the crisis of Racine's ideal of self-renunciation and concealed in itself a foretaste of the crisis of the entire old world order.
^ CHAPTER II THE IMAGE OF PHEDRA BY JEAN RACINE “PHEDRA”
2.1 Racine's creation of Phaedra
Jean Racine writes about Phaedra thus: “Here is another tragedy. Phaedra is neither entirely criminal nor entirely innocent. Fate and the wrath of the gods aroused in her a criminal passion, which terrifies, first of all, herself. She makes every effort to overcome this passion:
“But everything was in vain - both incense and blood:
Incurable love came to me!
I, offering prayers to the goddess Aphrodite,
Was immersed in dreams of Hippolyta.
And not her - oh no! - worshiping him
She carried her gifts to the foot of the altar.
I began to avoid him. But everything is the same:
In the features of the father - alas! - I found my son!
She would rather die than reveal her secret:
"What a criminal, what a fiend of evil
I became for myself! I cursed
Both passion and life. I knew: only a grave
Can hide my shame; I decided to die.
Heeding your requests and tears, you in everything
I confessed now. And I do not repent of that.
But knowing that I am condemned to death by fate,
You do not disturb me with a groan or reproach,
Do not answer, do not try to interfere
And do not try to inflate the dying fire again.
Perhaps this will reconcile with the theater many persons famous for their piety and firmness of their convictions, condemning the tragedy in our days.
Racine saw to it that Phaedra was less repulsive than in
Hippolyta. Racine believed that in slander there is something too low and too disgusting to be put into the mouth of the queen, whose feelings, moreover, are so noble and so lofty. And when Oenone says:
“You know he is your enemy. And this enemy is dangerous.
Why would you give way to the enemy triumph?
No, attack first and blame him
In his own, so grave sin ... ".
Phaedra answers her: “Oh no, I will not slander!”
It seemed to Racine that this baseness was more in the nature of the nurse, who could rather have vile inclinations and who, however, decided on slander only in the name of saving the life and honor of her mistress:
“I’ll tell you everything myself, but you shut up ... To deceit
I'll run, contrary to my conscience.
Oh, it would be easier for me to meet a thousand deaths!
But how can you be saved? There is no other way!
Enona is ready for anything for you, ready for anything.”
Phaedra is implicated in this only because of her spiritual confusion, due to which she does not control herself.
She soon returns to acquit the innocent and proclaim the truth.
Racine put Phaedra at the center of his tragedy, showing the painful struggle of a woman with a sinful passion burning her.
There are at least two interpretations of this conflict - "pagan" and "Christian". On the one hand, Racine shows a world inhabited by monsters (one of them destroys Hippolyta) and ruled by evil gods. At the same time, the existence of the “hidden God” of the Jansenists can be found here: he does not give people any “signs”, but only in him can salvation be found. It is no coincidence that the play was enthusiastically accepted by Racine's teacher Antoine Arnault, who owns the famous definition: "Phaedra is a Christian who has not been blessed." The heroine of the tragedy finds "salvation", dooming herself to death and saving the honor of Hippolytus in the eyes of her father. In this play, Racine managed to fuse together the concept pagan rock with the Calvinist idea of predestination.
In Racine, a woman, in the person of Phaedra, for the first time appears as a person who is completely independent in her feelings and responsible for her actions. In the person of Phaedra, with such artistic truthfulness, the struggle of a woman with a fatal and criminal passion that has seized her is depicted.
Phaedra Racina is noble: she only succumbs to the persuasion of her confidante, however, having experienced severe moral suffering, she reveals the truth to Theseus:
“Oh, listen, Theseus! I cherish the moments.
Your son was pure in heart. The fault lies with me.
By the will of higher powers, I was lit
An incestuous irresistible passion.
Oenone the vile intervened here, unfortunately.
Fearing that Hippolytus, who rejected my passion,
About the secret that was revealed to him, he will not be silent,
She dared (by persuading skillfully
Don't disturb me) to lie. And she succeeded."
But it's not just these external changes. Rasinovskaya Phaedra is a suffering woman, not a criminal.
The intense burning passion of the heroine is conveyed thanks to the perfected art form. Racine easily and organically accepts the strict rules of the classic "unities", without resorting to external stage effects, the action of the play unfolds clearly, consistently and accurately. Her heroine constantly analyzes her feelings, although she cannot curb passion. Thus, Racine comprehends and embodies in his tragedy not only the moral and psychological conflicts of his era, but also discovers the universal laws of psychology. "Phaedra" along with Racine's tragedies is not just a legacy Literature XVII century, but a truly eternal heritage of world culture.
^ 1.2 Criticism of the image of Phaedra by various authors
Vipper Yu. B. in the book “Creative Fates and History” writes about Phaedra as follows: “Phaedra Racine, for all her emotional drama, a man of clear self-consciousness, a man in whom the poison of instincts that corrodes the heart is combined with an irresistible desire for truth, purity and moral dignity.
Phaedra, who is constantly betrayed by Theseus, who is mired in vices, feels lonely and abandoned, and a destructive passion for her stepson Hippolytus is born in her soul. Phaedra, to some extent, fell in love with Hippolytus because in his appearance, the former, once valiant and beautiful Theseus, as it were, resurrected. But Phaedra also admits that a terrible fate weighs on her and her family, that the tendency to pernicious passions is in her blood, inherited from her ancestors. Ippolit is also convinced of the moral depravity of those around him. Turning to his beloved Aricia, Hippolyte declares that they are all "covered by a terrible flame of vice", and calls her to leave "the fatal and defiled place where virtue is called upon to breathe contaminated air."
But Phaedra, who seeks the reciprocity of her stepson and slanders him, appears in Racine not only as a typical representative of her corrupt environment. She rises above this environment at the same time. It was in this direction that Racine made the most significant changes to the image inherited from antiquity, from Euripides and Seneca. In Seneca, for example, Phaedra is depicted as a characteristic product of the unbridled palace customs of the era of Nero, as a sensual and primitive nature. Phaedra Racina, for all her spiritual drama, is a man of clear self-consciousness, a man in whom the poison of instincts that corrodes the heart is combined with an irresistible desire for truth, purity and moral dignity. In addition, she never for a moment forgets that she is not a private person, but a queen, a bearer of state power that her behavior is intended to serve as a model for society, that the glory of the name doubles the torment. The culminating moment in the development of the ideological content of the tragedy is Phaedra's slander and the victory that is then won in the mind of the heroine by a sense of moral justice over the selfish instinct of self-preservation. Phaedra restores the truth, but life is already unbearable for her, and she destroys herself.
In "Phaedra", due to its universal human depth, the poetic images drawn from antiquity are especially organically intertwined with the ideological and artistic motives suggested to the writer by modernity. As already mentioned, artistic traditions Renaissance continues to live in the work of Racine. When a writer, for example, makes Phaedra refer to the sun as her progenitor, for him this is not a conventional rhetorical embellishment. For Racine, the creator of "Phaedra", as well as for his predecessors - the French poets of the Renaissance, ancient images, concepts and names turn out to be native elements. Traditions and myths of hoary antiquity come to life here under the playwright's pen, giving even greater majesty and monumentality to the life drama that is played out before the eyes of the audience.
From Boileau's point of view, "Phaedra" was an ideal embodiment of the basic principle and purpose of tragedy - to arouse compassion for the hero, "criminal involuntarily", presenting his guilt as a manifestation of universal human weakness. The same concept underlies Racine's understanding of tragedy.
In foreign science, the interpretation of the image of the main character fluctuates from recognizing her as an unconditional "pagan" (according to the nature of the moral world of the heroine, of course, because in the literal "biographical" sense, Phaedra is the heroine of a pagan ancient myth), as in the well-known French writer M. Butor, to the point of being convinced that she is not only a "Christian", but also an exponent of a certain religious worldview - Jansenism, with which, as is known, Racine himself was associated.
S. Artamonov ascribes to Phaedra a "chain of crimes", D. Oblomievsky considers her a negative character, and Yu.B. Whipper is "a typical representative of his corrupted environment". A much more correct and flexible understanding of the character of Phaedra, the main collision of the play, can be found in V. Kadyshev's monograph "Racine".
Conclusion to chapter II
Who is Phaedra? Did she make moral crime or is she just a sincerely loving woman who has become a victim of circumstances? The author believes that she is fully independent in her feelings and responsible for her actions. I, too, believe that Phaedra was addicted to her love. Her mind doesn't listen. Although Phaedra constantly analyzes her feelings, she cannot curb her passion. Phaedra calls her love "incurable", that is, it is not in her power to change something in her feelings.
S. Artamonov, D. Oblomievsky, and Yu.B. Whipper consider Phaedra to be a negative character, but for me, the image of Phaedra evokes sympathy. In my opinion, Phaedra is just a woman who has a heart capable of loving. A heart that does not obey common sense.
CONCLUSION
So, I studied the work of Racine "Phaedra". Phaedra is the main character of the tragedy. What is her image? The author depicts the great, immeasurable power of feelings that took possession of the heroine, and which she cannot cope with. In Phaedra, the heroes love madly, disinterestedly, free from any utilitarian intentions. Hippolyte is "humanized" by love. Phaedra's crazy love is her weakness, her free will is expressed in the fact that she is aware of it. Racine's man has no power over himself, and above all over his feelings. Phaedra is first of all a victim of circumstances, and then a person who nevertheless understands what consequences can result from the fact that indulging in weakness, she harms other people.
Phaedra - wife of Theseus, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, stepmother of Hippolytus. Phaedra burns with passion for her stepson and reveals herself to him, but when her husband Theseus, whom she considered dead, saving herself and her children from shame, returns home, she allows Enon's nurse to slander Hippolytus in an attack on her honor before the truth is revealed. Cursed by his father, Hippolytus dies, and Phaedra, full of remorse, is poisoned, confessing to Theseus her guilt and the innocence of Hippolytus before her death. Developing the character of Phaedra, Racine relied on the tragedy of Euripides "Hippolytus Crowned" (428 BC) and Seneca's "Phaedra" (I century AD). Seneca made Phaedra the main character, which Racine accepted, but his version of this character (Phaedra from the very beginning is overwhelmed by insane passion and is ready for any crime) contradicted the desire of the French playwright to choose a heroine who, in accordance with Aristotle's Poetics, could cause compassion and horror . Therefore, in the preface to the tragedy, Racine indicates that it is to Euripides that he owes "the general idea of the character of Phaedra", remarking: "Phaedra is neither completely criminal nor completely innocent." Although the creation of the image of Phaedra was not a goal for Racine, but a means of revealing the idea of virtue, he understood in a new way the tasks of reproducing character in literature, becoming one of the founders of psychologism in France. He showed one day (the last day) of her life. The passion that had tormented her for many years reached its highest intensity on that day, from the hidden for the first time became apparent and led to a tragic denouement.
Racine with great force revealed the tragedy of a highly moral woman, leading a hard struggle with the criminal passion that overcomes her. The greatest tragedy of the poet testified to the crisis of Racine's ideal of self-renunciation and concealed in itself a foretaste of the crisis of the entire old world order.
^ BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Artamonov S.D. History of foreign literature of the XVII-XVIII centuries, - M., 1978
2. Vipper Yu. B. Creative fate and history. (On Western European literatures of the XVI - first half of XIX century). - M., 1990.
3. Mushroom V.R., Racine, Molière. Selected works. –M., 1956.
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At first Phaedra is outraged, but then agrees. After a few unintelligible words to her husband, Phaedra leaves (fourth scene). A worried Theseus threatens his son and leaves to interrogate Phaedra.
Act 4
Evnona accuses Hippolytus: the young man's sword serves as proof of his guilt. Theseus urges Neptune to punish Hippolytus. Hippolyte defends himself without betraying Phaedra and, in order to convince his father, confesses that he loves Arisia. Theseus does not believe his son and drives him away (second scene). Phaedra comes to her husband to ask forgiveness of Hippolytus: she is ready to confess everything when Theseus informs her that Hippolytus loves Arisia. This news shocks the queen (fourth scene). When Theseus leaves, Phaedra gives herself up to feelings of jealousy (fifth scene). But, already hating herself, Phaedra repents of everything she has done and drives away Evnona, the nurse, whom she blames for all her misfortunes.
Act 5
Hippolytus explains to Arisia why he did not reveal the truth to his father, but, confident that Arisia will not betray him, he tells the girl everything that happened between him and Phaedra. Hippolytus persuades Arisia to marry him and accompanies him into exile (first scene). Arisia accuses Theseus of injustice to his son, without revealing all the reasons. The king's anxiety is growing and he is already beginning to doubt. He learns that Phaedra is getting worse, that Evnona threw herself off a cliff into the sea, and, finally, that Neptune sent a monster to Hippolytus, which tore him to pieces. Theramenes tells the death of Hippolytus and the grief of Aricia (sixth scene). The dying Phaedra appears before the king: she confesses that her passion for Hippolytus is to blame for everything. Phaedra dies from the poison she has taken (seventh scene).
SOURCES
Racine borrowed the plot of his play, first of all, from Euripides And Seneca. However, Racine significantly changed the original Greek text. Euripides has Hippolytus as the main character, while Racine has Phaedra; in Greek tragedy, the main struggle unfolds between two goddesses, Aphrodite, whom Hippolytus despises, and Artemis, whom he reveres. Aphrodite inspires Phaedra with love for Hippolytus, Artemis tries to extinguish her. Phaedra hangs herself before Theseus appears. After a catastrophe and a long mourning, Hippolytus dies in the arms of Theseus. Overall, Racine borrows only two main scenes from Euripides: the scene in which Evnona learns that Phaedra loves Hippolytus; and the scene in which Theseus curses his son.
The Seneca tragedy also affected Racine. It is to the Roman playwright that Racine owes the importance of the image of Phaedra: it is Phaedra who declares her love for Hippolytus; it is with her death that the play ends.
Racine borrows practically nothing from Garnier's Hippolyte (1573) and La Pinelière (1635) of the same name. both tragedies themselves borrow much from Seneca's play.
Racine also drew a lot of information from other classical works, in particular, from Ovid and Virgil (Phaedra's love is similar in many ways to Dido's love for Aeneas, and the monster that killed Hippolytus is like Laocoön's snakes.
CHARACTERS
All characters turn pale before the image of Phaedra, which is central to the play.
Image Theseus personifies nobility mixed with infidelity: this character also illustrates the power of love, which destroys everything, even nobility and generosity.
main feature in the image Hippolyta is the struggle between the pride of a teenager and the temptations of love, which for him from the very beginning is criminal: since he respects his father, he respects his orders and considers it a crime to want to marry Arisia. Noble and proud, Hippolyte, whom love leads to death, is also somewhat to blame for his unfortunate fate.
Arisia, like Hippolyte, for a long time boasted that she had never known love. It is this rare pride that binds Hippolytus to her. Despite her ambition (Arisia wants to take the throne of Theseus), she remains a Racine girl, a touching and noble victim.
