Biata Fedra, de Jean Racine * Thesee, or Theseus, King of Athens * Phedre, or Phaedra, wife of Thesee, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae * Hippolyte, or Hippolytus, son of Thesee and Antiope, Queen of the Amazons * Aricie, or Aricia, princess of the royal blood of Athens * Oenone, nurse and confidante of Phedre * Theramene, or Theramenes, tutor of Hippolyte * Ismene, confidante of Aricie * Panope, lady-in-waiting to Phedre !! See also main article. ---------------- De la curs: Cea mai buna piesa a lui Racine, nu pentru ca este ultima sau una dintre putinele pe care le-a scris, “ilustru luminos, perfect din punct de vedere al creatiei si al limbii”. Legenda mai veche, pe care o prelucreaza si in care o gasim pe fata mai mica a regelui Cretei. Tezeu se indragosteste foarte tare de Phedra, care era tanara. Tezeu avea un baiat din prima casatorie, care era cam de varsta Fedrei. Tezeu se casatoreste cu Phedra, dar cand apare cu ea in resedinta lui regeasca, fata il vede si face cunostinta cu fiul sau, care este exact de varsta ei. Ea simte la vederea lui Hipolit o iubire pasionala, totala. Il vede atat de frumos, atat de perfect incat cade indragostita de el. Este o iubire imposibila. Sentimentul este de fapt o pedeapsa a zeilor, asa o considera ea. Lupta cu ea insasi. Cand Tezeu era plecat intr-o expeditie militara, avea o pasiune de a lupta, apare un zvon ca Tezeu ar fi pierit intr-una dintre luptele la care participa, ea indrazneste la sfatul doicei sale, sa clarifice situatia cu Hipolit. Doica este bine intentionata si spune mai bine sa stie, sa vada ce gandeste Hipolit depsre asta. Phedra o asculta, il cauta pe Hipolit in gradinile palatului si incearca sa-i spuna despre iubirea toatala pe care ea ar dori-o. Insa Hipolit o opreste imediat, ingrozit de aceasta situatie. El e foarte constient ca nu-i poate face asta tatalui, si nici nu are cum s-o iubeasca pe Phedra, pentru ca inima lui era data altcuiva – unei fete tinere, urmasa unor pretendenti la tronul Cretei. Hipolit o respinge net si ferm pe Phedra. Tezeu se intoarce victorios acasa, pentru ca zvonul fusese fals. Insa n-o aseste pe Phedra, pentru ca ea se hotarase – refuzul fusese atat de categoric incat ea se hotarase sa moara, insa numai dupa ce ii va spune lui Tezeu despre ce se intamplase. Nu reuseste, pentru ca Tezeu intreaba unde este sotia, i se raspunde ca nu este, Phedra apare, luase deja otrava puternica si pana cand isi face efectul ii povesteste lui Tezeu ca pe Hipolit il iubeste. Moare odata cu terminarea discursului. Hipolit care plecase repede din fata unui Tezeu care urma sa vina, din mare iese un balaur care sperie caii iar cotiga (trasura) se sfarama in toate partile si moare, impartit in mai multe bucati corpul sau si aruncat pe tarm. Moare si dadaca, care se simte vinovata de aceasta situatie, se ineaca in mare. ---------------- Wiki - ro Fedra este o tragedie In 5 acte (avand respectiv 5,6,6,6 si 7 scene), scrisa In versuri de catre Jean Racine, prezentata la 1 ianuarie 1677 la Hotel de Bourgogne. Fedra (greaca - Lumina) este ultima tragedie profana a lui Racine Inaintea unei lungi taceri de 12 ani de-a lungul carora se va consacra serviciului regelui si religiei. Inca o data, el alege un subiect deja tratat de poetii tragici greci si romani. In lipsa regelui Teseu, Fedra sfarseste prin a marturisi iubirea sa pentru Hippolit, fiul lui Teseu dintr-o alta casatorie. Totul In "Fedra" a fost celebru: constructia tragica, profunzimea personajelor, abundenta versificatiei. Spre deosebire de "Hippolit poarta coroana" al lui Euripide, Racine face ca la finele operei Fedra sa moara; deci, un timp ea sufera de pe urma mortii lui Hippolit. Fedra, ca personaj, este unul dintre cele mai remarcabile din operele lui Racine. Ea, totodata, este vinovata de nefericirea altora si este si victima instinctelor sale. "Fedra" a fost victima unei creatii simultane, pe aceeasi tema, a lui Nicolas Pradon, azi bine uitat, care a provocat o cearta literara care se va ivi In "Affaire des sonnets". Gabriel Gilbert publicase deja "Hippolit sau un baiat insensibil" (1647). Putin cate putin, "Fedra" devine una dintre piesele cele mai cunoscute ale lui Racine. Chiar daca ea n-a fost asa de studiata ca Andromaca sau Britannicus, ea este una dintre tragediile secolului al XVII-lea cel mai des reprezentate pe scena. --------------- The play is set at the royal court in Troezen, on the Peloponnesus coast in Southern Greece.[2] Act 1. Following Theseus's six month absence, his son Hippolytus tells his tutor Theramenes of his intention to leave Troezen in search of his father. When pressed by Theramenes, he reveals that the real motive is his forbidden love for Aricia, sole survivor of the royal house supplanted by Theseus and under a vow of chastity against her will. During her husband's absence, Phedre has become consumed by an illicit but overpowering passion for her stepson Hippolytus, which she has kept as a dark secret. Close to death and reeling about half-dementedly, under pressure from her old nurse Oenone she explains her state, on condition that she be permitted to die rather than face dishonour. The death of Theseus is announced with the news that his succession is in dispute. Oenone urges her mistress that, since her love for her stepson is now legitimate, she should form an alliance with him, if only for the future benefit of the infant son of her own flesh. Act 2. With fresh hope for her liberty, Aricia reveals to her maidservant Ismene her feelings towards Hippolytus, who promptly appears to declare his love for her. Their discourse is interrupted by Phedre, who distraughtly pleads for the rights of her infant son, explaining her coldness and personal despair. Suddenly entering a trance-like state overcome by emotion, she involuntarily confesses her hidden passions to her horrified dumb-struck stepson. Sensing rejection, she leaves in a wild frenzy, demanding Hippolytus' sword to end her torment. Theramenes brings news to Hippolytus that Theseus might still be alive. Act 3. In desperation Phedre sends word to Hippolytus inviting him to share the crown of Athens. However, Oenone brings her the devastating news that Theseus has returned in perfect health. To avert Phedre's deathwish and her possible betrayal by Hippolytus, Oenone urges that a story should be concocted around his abandoned sword. Seeing Hippolytus by Theseus' side, Phedre grants Oenone free rein. After his long period in captivity, Theseus is surprised by his cold reception from his wife and son, each anxious to conceal their passions: Phedre, consumed by guilt; and Hippolytus, anxious to distance himself from his stepmother's advances, but unable to tell his father of his love for Aricia. Act 4. Theseus has just been told by Oenone that Hippolytus has attempted to take Phedre by force. Overcome by rage, Theseus banishes Hippolytus and invokes the god Neptune, who has promised to grant any wish of Theseus, to avenge him by his son's death. Protesting his innocence, Hippolytus discloses his secret love for Aricia to his incredulous father and leaves in despair. Fearing that she might be guilty for Hippolytus' death, Phedre determines to reveal the truth to her husband, until she is told of Hippolytus' love for Aricia. Consumed by jealousy, she refuses to defend Hippolytus further, leaving his father's curse to run its course. When Oenone tries to make light of her mistress's illicit love, Phedre in a towering rage accuses her of being a poisonous scheming monster and banishes her from her presence. Act 5. Hippolytus takes his leave of Aricia, promising to marry her in a temple outside Troezen. On witnessing the tenderness of their parting, Theseus begins to have doubts about his son's guilt. He decides to question Oenone, but it is too late: Oenone has thrown herself to the waves. Theramenes brings news of his son's death: Hippolytus' departing chariot has been interrupted by a terrifying horned monster rising from the waves; mortally wounded by Hippolytus, its death throes drive his horses into a wild frenzy; in their flight, the chariot is dashed against the rocks and their master dragged helplessly to his death. In the closing scene, Phedre, now calm, appears before Theseus to confess her guilt and to confirm Hippolytus's innocence. She finally succumbs to the effects of a self-administered draught of Medean poison, taken to rid the world of her impurity. As an act of atonement and in respect for his son's parting promise, Theseus pardons Aricia and adopts her as his daughter. Phedre's ancestry and its curse The genealogy of Phedre gives a number of indications as to her character's destiny. Descended from Helios, god of the Sun, and Pasiphae, she nevertheless avoids being in the judgmental presence of the sun throughout the play. The simultaneous absence of a god-figure combined with the continual presence of one has been extensively explored in Lucien Goldmann's Le Dieu cache. This sense of patriarchal judgment is extended to Phedre's father, Minos, who is responsible for weighing the souls of the dead upon their arrival in Hades. Phedre is right to fear judgment; she is driven to an incestual love for her stepson Hippolytus, much like the other women in her family, who tended to experience desires generally considered taboo. Her mother, Pasiphae was cursed by Aphrodite to fall in love and mate with a a white bull, giving rise to the legendary Minotaur. Phedre meets Theseus, her future husband, when he arrives on the Minoan scene to kill her monstrous half-brother, the minotaur. Reception Everything about Phedre was masterly: the tragic construction, the deeply observed characters, the richness of the verse and the interpretation of the title role by Marie Champmesl�. Voltaire called it "the masterpiece of the human mind." Contrary to Euripides, Racine has Phedre dying on stage at the end of the play; she thus has had time to learn of the death of Hippolyte. The character of Phedre is one of the most remarkable in Racine's tragic oeuvre. The instrument of others' suffering, she is also the victim of her own impulses, a figure that inspires both terror and pity. Certain lines from the play, such as "la fille de Minos et de Pasiphae", have become classics in the French language; but despite the celebrated musicality of the alexandrine, Racine never wrote poetry just for the sake of beauty of sound. In the character of Phedre, he could combine the consuming desire inherited from her mother with the mortal fear of her father, Minos, judge of the dead in Hades. Despite its author's silence from 1677 to 1689, as time progressed Phedre became one of the most famous of his plays. It is now one of the most frequently staged tragedies from the seventeenth century. In his work Le Dieu cache, the 20th century author Lucien Goldmann extrapolates social theories of the role of the divine in French consciousness from thematic elements in Phedre. Although Phedre is perhaps less often studied at high school level in France than Britannicus or Andromaque, it is still frequently performed, and the eponymous role has been played by actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt and Isabelle Huppert. --------------- Fedra lui Seneca Phaedra, sometimes known as Hippolytus, is a play by Seneca the Younger, telling the story of Phaedra and her taboo love for her stepson Hippolytus. It is an adaptation of Hippolytus by Euripides; in Seneca's version, Phaedra is more sensual and shameless, deceiving her nurse in order to gain her as an accomplice.