35 pages • 1-hour read
Phaedra
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Symbols & Motifs
Nature
The play begins with a kind of ode to nature sung by Hippolytus, who speaks fondly and lavishly of the forests around Athens. Nature is not merely ornamental in the play. Natural imagery is used throughout for characterization and for adding vividness to the emotions and passions of the different characters. Phaedra’s desire for Hippolytus, for example, is likened to “the blast which gushes out / From Etna’s depths” (102-3), or “a quick flame [that] runs over timbered roofs” (644). The inflexibly chaste Hippolytus, similarly, is compared to a rock:
so hard, immovable:
As a rock resists the waves and dashes far away
The waters which assail it […] (580-82).
Later, the Chorus describes physical beauty in its transience:
Briefer than meadows, lovely in the spring,
Which the blast of summer’s heat will lay to waste
When the noon-time of the solstice burns,
And night runs on a shorter track (764-67).
Hippolytus’s own beauty is compared to the moon, stars, and evening star (744-52).
The way each character views the relationship between human beings and the natural world develops their characterization. To the innocent and naïve Hippolytus, nature represents freedom and purity. To the tormented and passionate Phaedra, nature is a hostile and dangerous force. To the cynical and quick-tempered Theseus, nature is another aspect of the world to be conquered and dominated.
Passion Versus Reason
The interplay and juxtaposition of passion and reason is central to the play; indeed, the failure of any of the characters to control their passions with reason emerges as a principal theme. From the very first act, passion is personified with sentient qualities as one of the ruling forces in human life, conquering even reason. As Phaedra says in her outcry to the Nurse, “What can reason do? Passion, passion rules” (184). Madness, love, and lust are also personified; all are imagined as powerful entities or gods who conquer virtues such as reason, shame, and propriety. The more the characters of the play imagine passion as a personal force, the less they are able to exercise reason to control their own passions.
Fate Versus Human Responsibility
Like the juxtaposition between passion and reason, the play explores the relationship between fate and human responsibility. Phaedra views her condition as the work of fate, a fate she often connects with her mother Pasiphae’s forbidden passion for the Cretan Bull. Fate or Fortune is personified by the characters of the play as an arbitrary force, “greedy for spoils” (467), or as a figure who “rules chaotically over human life” and “makes no promises / To anyone” (979, 1142).
But while many, if not all, of the characters blame their misfortunes on fate, a rival interpretation emerges that humans are responsible for their own behavior. The Nurse is an especially strong proponent of this view, telling Phaedra that “Monsters are caused by fate, but sin by character” (144), and that “Impurity is caused by attitude, not fate” (736). The play evokes the question of whether its sad events are brought about by destiny or by the failings of human character. It implies that perhaps fate and human responsibility work hand-in-hand.
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