Choose at least two questions for your response:
1. Theseus's return is exactly in the middle of the play. Why do you think Racine places it here, effectively marking it as the event that divides the play in half?
2. What is Oenone's role - especially in Act III? Why does Oenone, and not Phedre, propose the idea of blaming Hippolytus for the problems of the household? Is Oenone the incarnation of evil? Is she Phedre's double? Is she amoral?
3. Why do you think Act III is the shortest in the play? What function does it serve? For what are the spectators ready after it ends?
4. How does Phedre in Act IV resemble the Phedre we have already seen? How does she evolve? And toward what?
5. How are the feelings the spectators have in Act IV for Theseus, Hippolytus, Phedre and/or Oenone? Are these feelings simple (meaning the same character evokes always the same reaction) or complex (the reaction varies according to scene)? Why?
6. Choose one or two quotes for your own discussion/interpretation.
No comments:
Post a Comment