Phedre and The Age of Reasoning

It was very interesting to learn something about The Age of Reason

and political Absolutism. These periods of time definitely deserves our
attention. In the play Phedre we see the attitude of men toward women
during these periods of time. Man were characterized and represented as
logic, order, and strength while women were viewed as emotional, weak,
and no order. In addition, in order to describe women in the play, they
were called femme fatale.
To find specific moments in the play that support these
generalizations, we straight from the beginning can see that the play is
from mans perspective. It already seems like Phedre is not being in
control of her own feelings.. Phedres feelings toward her stepson,
Hippolytus, are seemed to be a little bit confusing and that she cannot
control them. She is trying to hide it from others, as I think she is
embarrassed. In order to hide them, she has to lie about everything. In my
opinion, that what makes her a femme fatale. As soon as the news
about Theseus death reaches Phedre, she decided to confront Hippolytus.
Which is absolutely wrong, even if it is her stepson. We viewers see that
Phedre understands that what she is doing is wrong. She knows that her
actions will only lead to bad circumstances. However, she still follows her
uncontrolled feelings, which again makes her a femme fatale.
When the rumor about Theseus death shook everyone, we should
not forget that he was a King, and the person that is going to become a
king next is Hippolytus. At this point, Phedre thought that it was the best
moment to confront Hippolytus as she will get a double win in this

situation. Firstly, she will receive his love. Secondly, she will become a
queen once again. This situation, in my opinion, really puts Hippolytus at
risk, as his stepmoms motives will become more proactive. Again, Phedre
is femme fatale. In addition to the news of Theseus death, Phedre is
also unaware that Hippolytus doesnt have any feeling for her, but he does
for a girl named Aricia, she is an enemy to their family. Phedre decides to
break their relationship at any cost. We can only imagine how Phedre is
feeling at this point, nothing is working out for her and that makes her
very desperate which in return makes her very dangerous for the people
around her as well as for herself. She even thought about a suicide.
We, readers, think that Phedres situation could not get any worse,
but it does get worse. The news about Theseus death turned out to be
wrong and he is actually alive. Phedre could only think about what will
happen when he comes back and when Hippolytus will tell him about her
wrongdoings while he was away. Hippolytus didnt turned Phedre staright
away and that was his mistake. Phedre came with a plan, with the help
from Oenone, they were able to turn everything against Hippolytus. When
Theseus was told that his son wants to bring his family to shame, he got
really furious and exiled him from the kingdom. While in exile, Hippolytus
made an wrong enemy, Neptune. This enemy is a God and he easily killed
him when he was on the boat. Phedre was all about saving herself,
securing herself from embarrassment. To isolate herself completely, she
cut all the traits that could lead to her and she set ups Oenone which later
dies from his own hands.

Even after everything Phedre has done, she was scared to confess
to Theseus about all her wrongdoings. She acknowledges that what she
had done is terrible and absolutely didnt worth anything, but she was
moved by her emotions. These emotions got out of control and lack of
control made her weak. At the end she committed suicide and that was
her weakness. In addition, her weakness was to tell everything to Theseus
when she was almost dead and she knew that she still would not be held
accountable.

Works Cited
Racine, Jean (2011-03-24). Phdre. English (Kindle Location 292). . Kindle
Edition.