Topic > Hippolytus: Analysis of Phaedra

In the play Hippolytus, Euripides describes the characters realistically by showing their conflicting emotions in the wake of dramatic events, as well as their deception in achieving their goals. A great example of such tactics is the character Phaedra, who is content to suffer to death due to the shame of her forbidden desires for her stepson. However, when the nurse reveals her secret, Phaedra devises a plan to ruin her reputation and save her own. Until the creation of the letter for the fall of his stepson, Euripides makes the audience sympathize with Phaedra, leading us to understand her pain at her love-struck heart. At first, Phaedra longs for the same nature and hunt that she knows Hippolytus is participating in, largely due to a shared desire to be close to the one she loves. Phaedra then becomes more aware of her kidnapping and is consumed by shame at having wanted Hippolytus. Next, the audience is allowed to watch her go back and forth regarding whether her sinful desires are the result of the sins of the women in her family or are driven by the goddess Cypris. Finally, Phaedra uses deception to protect her reputation from being tarnished after her death. Therefore, Euripides uses the natural characteristics of human beings – uncontrollable desire, shame, the need to find explanations, and survival of one's good reputation – to make Phaedra a dynamic character and invoke sympathy in the audience for Phaedra. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the opening act of Hippolytus, Hippolytus hunts “wild beasts with his swift hounds” (31) and honors the goddess Artemis with a “…woven garland, gathered from a virgin meadow…” (32 ) Immediately after this scene, the audience observes Phaedra pining for a similar meadow, set among the pines “…where the hounds chase their prey, greedy for the scent of the piebald fawns…”, and also “…listening to them, to grasp the sting. dart, to aim the Thessalian hunting spears near [her] golden hair, then let them fly…” (34) Phaedra's eagerness to find herself in such a place and take part in the same hunt as Hippolytus is a indication that she wants to be close and interact with Hippolytus because of her desire for him Euripides introduces this natural desire as the first representation of love for him, most likely because it is the simplest symptom of love that many can identify with. themselves, this makes the audience see themselves in Phaedra and feel as if this could have easily been one of them affected by Aphrodite's power and uncontrollably falling in love with someone they shouldn't. As Phaedra comes to her senses and realizes that her infatuation has dictated her thoughts, she is filled with shame several times; he says, "...the tire on my head is too heavy to wear..." (34) and "Shame fills me for the words I have spoken. Hide me then; tears flow from my eyes, and with great shame the away” (35). Because of her disgust with his desires, Phaedra becomes a figure of pity; she knows that her love for her stepson is wrong and would rather suffer and be ashamed than act on it death compared to forbidden love makes Phaedra admirable to the audience. In response to her unjust fate in the universe, Phaedra begins to imagine why she might have deserved a similar end. Explores different angles of her reasoning and the audience sympathizes in trying to understand why something bad could happen to someone, accessing the completely human instinct to find an origin for tragedies!.