Osborne 1 Vincent Osborne Professor Gabriela Baika HUM2052 - Civilization 2: Renaissance to Modern July 16, 2012 Phaedra and

the Era of Enlightenment The start of the Enlightenment period was a period in which scholars and an increasing middle-class began publishing works questioning the nature of social and political life in Europe. The Enlightenment encouraged greater skepticism about religious and state authority (Hunt 522). They championed a new scientific method as the solutions to all social problems and seek new ways of thinking and rationalizing human emotions, reasoning and religious faith the search for truth, essentially was one of the main underlying pillars behind this movement. Works such as Phaedra is in many ways, is a timeless piece that exemplified many of these themes as well as various human emotions that have plagued mankind for centuries. In Phaedra, the story is interwoven with emotions such as weakness, anger, misery, depression, obsession and many others that can befallen just about any human that allows reason or the lack thereof to give way to strong emotions, particularly that of deep forbidding love. Indeed, the story of Phaedra demonstrates emotions in the vein of two extreme contexts, both as a blameless natural emotional, and as an irrational and dangerous emotion. On one side, you have the healthy and innocent love of Hippolytus and Aricia, and on the other end, you have the extremely destructive and unwholesome love Phaedra harbors for Hippolytus. In the start of the play we find Hippolytus, a young man who is professes his love to a young woman, Aricia. Later on, Aricia is a prisoner of the king and the love they felt for each other, although prohibited

Osborne 2 by the king, is wholesome and unpolluted. As the events unfold, their bond is not to be fulfilled as disturbing events erupted between them. Phaedra, encompassed a veritable list of powerful human emotions, and more importantly, it demonstrated how some of them, if unchecked, can be catastrophic human conditions. There were lying rage, lust, jealousy, and in the absence of reason most of these human emotions can lead to damning conclusions. Interestingly, these are conditions that have plagued mankind from the dawn of creation; even today, you need not look any further than a coworker, a neighbor or celebrities on TV embroiled in love affairs or love triangles. A person can be so engulfed in emotions over the lust or love over another person that they seem to lose all reasoning and thinking. The newspapers and online magazines are littered with horrible crimes that are committed over love or lust. Just as in Phaedra where there were preventable lies and deaths over a person's lust for another. The jealousy that set in after finding out Hippolytus was in love with another woman descended into madness and led to complete devastation and chaos. Phaedra takes the reader to a place where many similarities can be found in todays world in witnessing many crumbling families and crimes of passion that are the results of unchecked reasoning gone awry. For instance, in Scene 5 it appeared that Phaedra was not seeing Hippolytus as some young lover, step son or not, but perhaps, as her husband, Theseus when she exclaimed her undying love: Prince, there is no release From Acheron's greedy maw. And yet, methinks, He lives, and breathes in you. I see him still Before me, and to him I seem to speak;

Osborne 3 My heart-Oh! I am mad; do what I will (Lawell) Whether shes seeing in Hippolytus, the qualities she saw in her husband, Theseus or simply words to pacify brazen love for Hippolytus, one thing is clear: it is unhinged maddening emotions let loose without sound reasoning grounding it. It is clear that Phaedra was obsessed or was stricken in love for Hippolytus for a very long time, matter of fact, she felt so from the time she first laid eyes upon him, exclaiming: My wounds is not so recent . . . I lookd, alternatively turnd pale and blushd To see him, and my soul grew all distraught; A mist obscured my vision, and my voice Falterd, my blood ran cold, then burnd like fire. (Hunt). Apparently, Phaedras long suffering was not one solely of physical calamity, but also of long held guilt and shame for lusting after her son, Hippolytus, Too long have I endured its guilt and shame, as she told Oenone in Scene III (Hunt). Made all the more worse because she inflicted harsh punishment and suffering onto him, banishing him, perhaps, so that she does not have to deal with the lure of temptation within his presence. It is clear from Phaedra that lack of reasoning can bring about a very tumultuous life, particularly when it comes to love. On the other end of the coin, unconditional, deep seeded love is such a beautiful and powerful human emotion that can also bring about happiness. I believe both are synonymous with each other and either do not have to dwell within the heart exclusively, but can coexist for a balanced and more harmonized life experience.

Osborne 4 Works Cited Hunt, Martin, et al. The Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures, A Concise History. Third Edition. 2003. Bedford/St. Martin. New York. Print. Lawall, Sarah, et al. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Vol. 2 (8th Ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print.