Jean Racine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Jean Racine - Essay Example An interesting case in this point can be round in Racine's preface to Phedre. The seventeenth-century reader would likely have been surprised to find there no mention of pardon, whose parasitic rival version of the same story set off an unusually venomous battle. (Bold, 2001) According to Bold "Racine's own creation is modestly represented, as a carefully charted divergence from the Eurpidean 'Route' to which Racine remains richly indebted, serving 'Phedre' as an exemplary character". "The litotes of this opening, which might be read as a ritual gesture of authorial self-effacement, conceals in fact a far more complex irony in as much as it erases more than we at first think more, that is, than the simple vanity of a purely original creation, an inventio ex nihilo. One is, upon reflection, struck by a number of things in this apparently modest statement. This is certainly one of the very few places where one can find the character of Phedre described, at whatever level, as reasonable. It has also been fairly argued that Euripides's tragedy Hippolytus given the play's title and the stepmother's early guilt-ridden suicide is not really about Phedre anyway. More importantly, as it implies only a difference between the Latin and the French versions, Racine's dismissive reference identifies the Senecan text as the site of corruption and consequently, as an alibi for his own text's purer origins". (Bold, 2001) 'Phedre' the entire play revolves around the concept of 'monster'. To how much the statement is true can be determined from the fact that 'Phedre' represents the corruption and evil enriched in the social attitude of French culture of the then seventeenth century. Racine wanted the society to confront to the social dilemmas so it seems as if he has shown the French society, a mirror so that they might acknowledge their reality in the form of corruption and vulgarity. The main monster according to my perception is the evil that resides deep within a human, now it depends upon the person as to whether he feeds and nourishes that evil so that the evil grows up to become a 'monster' or he remains callous towards the evil, so that eventually he is alleviated. Let us see and examine every central character of 'Phedre' in the light of 'monstrous' appeal. 'Hippolytus' in other monsters Though Hippolytus is unmonstrous as compared to other characters in 'Phedre', but he fails to succeed through the rein of monstrous characters. One reason might be the strength of his inner self and conscience, which escorted him to remain aloof from participating in the devilish works of 'Phedre'. His reason for being morally ethical is the true love of 'Aricia', which lead him towards the light instead of thrusting into the darkness of horror which otherwise would have transformed him into the monster. He is the only character perceived to be 'human' as he knows the morals of relations, and unlike other characters in 'Phedre' he has trained his ego towards goodness and moral values. The reason for other