Initially, I did not like Racine’s retelling of Hippolytus, Phaedra. The text was too wordy, and the lack of script notes made it difficult to visualize how the story would have been played out. My first attempts to read the play were met with resistance, either I’d find a reason to stall, take long “breaks”, or simply fall asleep after reading half a page. Three days before class, I managed to get half-way through the assigned pages. It was a pain to read the through the whole play, but I managed. Shockingly enough, I found myself appreciating the play the more we discussed it in class and saw clips of the performance.
In particular, I was drawn to Phaedra, a victim to the whims of gods and men. I could really sympathize with Phaedra, who
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Were this the original Greek script, this statement may differ. Racine explicitly points out the various factors that overpower Phaedra who is if anything is innocent bystander. Those to blame are Hippolytus for his prideful statement that earned him the wrath of Aphrodite and her tainted bloodline that is doomed in the affairs of love and sexual encounters. Her linage as a daughter of a women who conceived with a bull and sister to one whose end came in form of a fruitless love; which is talked about on p. 203, lines 60-74. Her love life is foreshadowed to be doomed from the start, it never had a chance to blossom to anything other than tragedy with Aphrodite involved. As an individual, Phaedra was willing to take her inappropriate passion with her to the grave, as seen on page 193, line 74, “I die, and my grim secret dies with me.” This all being said, I am certain that she holds no blame for the tragedy that occurs in the play. The play’s neoclassic background adds another level of …show more content…
I was able to extract the differences between the two, as well as their similarities. Realism is seen as a precursor to Naturalism, not only because it came before it, but also because at it’s bases it is a less extreme form of naturalism. Realist writers wrote about typical middle-class situations or events. Their characters were not extreme (such as aristocrats), but those of the rising middle-class. By having the main concept be the disconnection between people living in the city and nature, they showcase the unnatural effects of the urban setting. Furthermore, most works of realism were produced to contrast the works of the romantics that predated them. Tired of the sugar-coating romantics, realist sought to write about the ugly things in life in a “truthful manner”. Naturalism meanwhile was realism on steroids. They focused on the conditions of the poor-lower class, forcing readers to view the unjust world thru a labor’s eyes. This genre is filled with accounts that seek to show others the difficult conditions which many people must live with. To me these differences feel no more than markers in a spectrum. Writers from both genres no longer concentrate on the elite but diverge their attention to the middle and lower class that have for the most part been underrepresented. Moreover, these forms of literature center around how out of sync humans have become with
Phaedra has a very lustful personality. She lusts over her stepson and cannot control it. This love is forbidden and frowned upon, which is why Phaedra keeps it a secret for so long, just like Tartuffe keeps his love for Elmire a secret in Moliere’s work Tartuffe. “I’ve given the neighboring rooms a full inspection; / No one’s about; and now I may at last…” (Moliere 77) Even though Phaedra’s situation is different than that of Tartuffe’s, it can still be seen as a similar situation in terms of forbidden love. Even if Phaedra wanted to stop lusting over Hippolytus, she cannot. According to Lattimore, Aphrodite announces “she has made Phaedra fall in love with Hippolytus, that Phaedra is keeping it a secret and like to die, but she is a necessary instrument for the young man’s punishment.” (7) She cannot part from this world to save herself the misery because she is needed to inflict punishment on Hippolytus. Without her husband, Theseus, here, imagine how much greater Hippolytus’ appeal is. “With Theseus away for over six months on one of his adventures, she burns with ...
The increase in immigrants into America was one of the reasons. Realists endeavored to give a comprehensive picture of modern life by presenting the entire picture. The true definition of literary realism as defined by Encyclopedia Britannica is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one-century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United States.
While reading the play Oedipus the King, my response to the work became more and more clear as the play continued. When I finished the play, my reaction to the work and to two particular characters was startling and very different from my response while I was still reading. My initial response was to the text, and it was mostly an intellectual one. I felt cheated by the play because the challenge of solving the mystery of the plot was spoiled for me by the obvious clues laid out in the work. My second response was not as intellectual; instead, it came more from a feeling that the play evoked in me. I felt a strong disappointment in the drastic actions that Oedipus and Jocasta took at the end of the play. My two different responses to Oedipus the King, one intellectual and one not, now seem to feed off and to amplify each other as if they were one collective response.
Realism is a style of writing which shows how things are in life. It showed how mostly every person thought life was just perfect. They were not seeing the
As the famous Greek playwright Euripides once said: “Stronger than lover's love is lover's hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make.” Such ideas are portrayed in one of him most famous plays, Medea. This play is a fascinating classic centered on the Greek goddess Medea. Despite its recent fame, during his time, Euripides was unpopular since he used what would be considered a ‘modern’ view where he would focus on women, slaves and persons from the lower classes. In the play, Medea commits filicide, which initially appears extremely horrendous, but as the audience is guided through the play, they develop sympathy towards Medea. In order to achieve this empathy and enhance the understanding of Medea’s pride and ideals, Euripides utilizes the Chorus, the Nurse, and the Children- all are which minor characters. Granted that these characters overall have overlapping roles and guide the audience towards the same concept, at some topics they disagree or contradict each other.
Scheidenhelm, Carol. "Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism." Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism. Loyola University Chicago, 14 Aug. 2007. Web. 05 May 2014.
Meanwhile, the only mortal woman to incur any suffering in this play is Phaedra herself, and she chooses her final fate. This theme is so obvious that Hippolytus points it out himself. “But a clever woman—that I loathe! . For Cypris engenders more mischief in the clever ones.” (Hippolytus, Lines 644-646).
Romanticism and realism can be presented through poetry, novels, or even paintings. These two styles of art were big in the 19th century. Romanticism is freeing the mind through different types of art. Realism is being real about ones circumstances, even if it’s ugly or not appealing. These two styles of writing are very important in literature.
Romanticism was a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature. It was a general exaltation of emotion over reason order and instinct. It was full of high passion. Romanticism was “a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities”, (Pioch). The art expressed passions and inner struggles. The artists of this time were supremely individual creators. To them the creative spirit was the most important thing of their art. They didn’t follow the strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures. They thought of the “imagination as the gateway to the transcendent experience and spiritual truth”, (Pioch). They had obsessive interests in folk culture, the medieval era, national and ethnic culture origins. Realism was and still is an accurately reproduction of reality or heroism of modern life. Realism came as a response to Romanticism. Realism struggled against the ‘over popularity’ of Romanticism. It consisted of many pieces of still life and domestic art. Courbet, Millet, and Zola were some more of the major artists doing Realism art. They aren’t as well known as many other artists because every one was doing this kind of art and it was hard to tell the differences between the artists that painted Realism paintings. Realism “became just one more style among others”, (Brown). They anticipated many of the concerns of the eighteen hundreds or of the century before. “Realism is a recurrent theme in art which becomes a coherent movement”, (Cruttenden 50) but only after 1850.
Despite the contrast in the characters of Euripedes' Medea and Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the two playwrights depicted how gender inequality can start a fire. As with Medea and Jason, the battle between the two lead to former's madness, leading to the death of the enemies she considered, and, unfortunately, leading as well to the death of her own children. Medea felt betrayed and left behind by her husband Jason, as well as continuously aggravated by Creon despite the fact that i...
After the phase of Romanticism, Realism came into play. Realism really became an active movement in literature in the mid-nineteenth century, during a period of revolution and innovation in Europe (Maier). Often times portrayed as the opposite of Romanticism, Realism is a genre of true honesty and reality. Realist characters are brutally honest, able to deal with and address difficult situations, and deal with their problems in a realistic fashion. In contrast with Romanticism, Realism provided readers with a fresh breath of air with “a certain degree of “truth telling” or sober factuality” (Maier). A guide booklet created by The French Realist School concluded that realistic writing should be clear of “idealization, poetic language, and exaggeration,” with some kind of struggle of the main character present in the plot (Maier).
Naturalism and realism are tremendously similar in literary style but their slight difference in details, such as environment and instincts, commence a dramatic effect in the author’s portrayal of the underlying themes. Realist literature developed in mid-19th century France in effort to progress toward literature not consisting of neoclassic romanticism. In this effort, literary works developed into characters and settings that are relatable to the audience, much like the compatibility of naturalism and the readers of its time period during industrialization. Even to this day, when people search for an enticing book to read, it is presumed that fictional novels that are relatable would be more appealing to the audience. However, unlike naturalism, realism ...
The Greek playwright, Euripides, is considered one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens. His individuality is attributed to the way he “pushes to the limits of what an audience can stand”. His masterpiece Medea, a fascinating classic centered on the Greek goddess Medea, is a prime example of this. During his time, Euripides was unpopular since he defied the common themes of tragedies during the 430s B.C.E. he instead introduced a nihilistic and disturbing tragedy focused on women, slaves and persons from the lower class. His mastery shines through as he guides the audience to sympathize with Medea even when she commits filicide, a seemingly horrendous act.
Phaedra says, " my frenzied love's burst forth in act and word. I've spoken what should never have been heard" (Phaedra 181). This shows how much she regrets her decision to verbalize her feelings, because she knows she spoke out of passion instead of reason. Her indignity is so strong in her heart that she cannot even let herself take the responsibility for it. Phaedra claims that, " the Gods have robbed [her] wits"(Phaedra 168) as a way of passing the blame on to someone else in an effort to remove some of the dishonor from herself and onto the Gods. Eventually, she gives into the passion she is feeling, and tells Hippolytus how she feels. Her passion horrifies Hippolytus, because of the wrongness of the situation. Phaedra is so bound to a world of reason that once she decides to explore her feelings she removes her boundaries all together, forgetting how serious the affects on other people are going to be. Meanwhile Hippolytus finds strength of will, driven by passion, to pursue the woman he loves, who was banned by his father Theseus. Hippolytus says, " my reason can't rein in my heart" (Phaedra 176) when he is thinking about the crime he is committing against his father because of his love for Aricia.
As the tale unfolds, it becomes clear that Phaedra is aware that her love for Hippolytus can never be fulfilled, and the shame that she feels from this passion is true. After confessing her love to Hippolytus in Act 2, scene 5, she curses the Gods for torturing her soul by making her love someone against her will, and she even goes as far as to ask for death. The power of shame has overcome her, and she feels that if she can not be with the man that she loves then she wishes to die by his sword as if she were a "monster". When Theseus returns home, her shame is heightened by the presence of him, and by the thought that her incestuous love will be made aware to all. However, this shame quickly turns to the offensive when she allows Oenome to plot a reverse of guilt and accuse Hippolytus of loving Phaedra. The power of shame is no more evident then at this point in the story, because Phaedra, feeling the height of shame after admitting her love to Hippolytus, must face both her husband Theseus, the man she should love, and Hippolytus, the forbidden love. Feeling confused and helpless, Phaedra allows Oenome to place the blame on Hippolytus, and this begins her change from feelings of shame to guilt.