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Euripides vs. Racine
Feb. 6th, 2006 09:22 pmI should really write that essay. It shouldn't be that hard - I know both Phèdre and Hippolytus inside out (although not actually having an English version of Hippolytus is unhelpful). I think it's perhaps my current state of deepest fatigue.
Main points
-Taking the gods out of it makes it slightly less cohesive and takes away a level of complexity.
-Euripides's characters are much more likeable (even Hippolytus when he's at his highest levels of incoherent misogyny) since it is much more obvious that the Nurse has Phaedra's best interests at heart, and Phaedra's committing suicide before she knows that the situation is completely lost shows more fortitude. (Or perhaps not. But I think that Phèdre's trying to get the best of both worlds.)
-Euripides doesn't have Aricie. (Not, of course, in so many words, but: Hippolytus's protestations of purity are actually justifiable, rather than Hippolyte saying that he was going to avoid women and then falling for Aricie as soon as he thought it would be all right.)
-Euripides presents Hippolytus's not telling Theseus about Phaedra as a struggle between an oath that H. swore and what he knows he should do.
Theseus comes out of both fairly well: He comes home, unaware of everything and finds that his wife is dead, with a plaque saying that his son raped her/ neither his son nor his wife will speak to him and his son says he's leaving. I think that of all the people you could blame for Hippolytus's death, Theseus is last: yes, he acted on very little evidence, but I like to think that he loved and trusted Phaedra. (Based on two lines of evidence - "never will I hear her sweet conversation more" or words to that effect.)
And now for something completely different:
There could be no grosser misconception of the realities than is entertained by those who vociferously demand legislation as they call it “against discrimination”, whether they be leader-writers of the same kidney and sometimes on the same newspapers which year after year in the 1930s tried to blind this country to the rising peril which confronted it... From Enoch Powell’s speech to the Annual General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre, Birmingham, England, April 20, 1968. See, Greek class? I'm right.
Main points
-Taking the gods out of it makes it slightly less cohesive and takes away a level of complexity.
-Euripides's characters are much more likeable (even Hippolytus when he's at his highest levels of incoherent misogyny) since it is much more obvious that the Nurse has Phaedra's best interests at heart, and Phaedra's committing suicide before she knows that the situation is completely lost shows more fortitude. (Or perhaps not. But I think that Phèdre's trying to get the best of both worlds.)
-Euripides doesn't have Aricie. (Not, of course, in so many words, but: Hippolytus's protestations of purity are actually justifiable, rather than Hippolyte saying that he was going to avoid women and then falling for Aricie as soon as he thought it would be all right.)
-Euripides presents Hippolytus's not telling Theseus about Phaedra as a struggle between an oath that H. swore and what he knows he should do.
Theseus comes out of both fairly well: He comes home, unaware of everything and finds that his wife is dead, with a plaque saying that his son raped her/ neither his son nor his wife will speak to him and his son says he's leaving. I think that of all the people you could blame for Hippolytus's death, Theseus is last: yes, he acted on very little evidence, but I like to think that he loved and trusted Phaedra. (Based on two lines of evidence - "never will I hear her sweet conversation more" or words to that effect.)
And now for something completely different:
There could be no grosser misconception of the realities than is entertained by those who vociferously demand legislation as they call it “against discrimination”, whether they be leader-writers of the same kidney and sometimes on the same newspapers which year after year in the 1930s tried to blind this country to the rising peril which confronted it... From Enoch Powell’s speech to the Annual General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre, Birmingham, England, April 20, 1968. See, Greek class? I'm right.
