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From: Kim Mlcak
Date: 2/8/2004
Time: 9:33:59 PM
Remote Name: 24.1.72.245
I guess I will be the first to attempt to answer question 4. I have given this question much thought and I feel that there are several types of love involved with the characters of Phaedra. I think that one form of love is in a parent/child relationship. Hippolytus loves and respects his father, wants to be heroic in battle like his father, but yet, does not love the part of his father that allows him to womanize and declares that he will not be like that. There is also a parent/child love relationship with Oenone and Phaedra. Oenone speaks about always being there for her mistress from the cradle on and taking care of and protecting her at all costs. This is very similar to a mother's love for her child, even though Oenone is really just a nurse and confidente. There is the love of Phaedra for her own 2 children, one of the reasons, she pulls herself out of her funk, so that she can watch out for and protect the boys against any outside interference with their rise to the throne after the supposed death of her husband. There is love at first site, this is passion, in which a person looses all form of reason and rationality, at even the site of the person they are in love with. This happens 2 times in the play. When Phaedra sees Hippolytus after her marriage to Theseus, she is awe struck with her sudden uncontrollable feelings for her husband's son. She knows this is wrong for many reasons, but is unable to let her reason take over and guide her. This is also seen in Hippolytus when he passionately falls in love with Aricia. He knows that she is off limits and that he will be punished for this love, but his reasoning will not win over his battle with passion for this woman. The third kind of love that I see in this play is the love brought on by a sense of loyalty and duty. Phaedra does love Theseus because he has brought her a long way from home to be his wife and bear his children. This sense of duty helps her to stay on track when Hippolytus is not in close proximity to her. Theseus, even though a womanizer, has love for his wife, after all she has borne him 2 more sons, and he does always come home to her, that is his husbandly duty. He also has a duty to his wife, to stand behind her, not allow anyone to defame her name, even if it means disowning his own flesh and blood. Hippolytus also loves his father, that is his job as a son, he does not want to disappoint his father, so his love for Aricia is hidden within, so that he does not betray his father's decree against Aricia. It is his duty to obey his father's will. Hippolytus's duty is to please his father first, not to please himself by loving a forbidden woman. The fourth kind of love is forbidden love. This is love that is morally, ethically, and inherently wrong. This love can be incestous, can be lustful, can have characters that are practicing infidelity, yet they are unable to change the course that this kind of love is leading them into. Phaedra is well aware that her passions concerning Hippolytus is wrong, yet she is unable to dismiss them from her mind, even when she has him sent away. Hippolytus is aware that his love for Aricia is wrong, she has been tainted as forbidden fruit, yet he is unable to convince himself that he can not have her. Aricia loves Hippolytus and she is also painfully aware that her love, for what should be her enemy, is too powerful to fight, yet forbidden. Theseus also shows many instances of forbidden love when he carries on his acts of womanizing, even though he has a wife waiting at home for him. The fifth kind of love is unrequited love. This is shown when Theseus leaves Ariadne behind on an island to die after she helped save him from certain death, because she loved him. Also Phaedra loves Hippolytus and when she finally tells him, he is appalled and thinks she is crazy. He wants no part of her love for him. I think that Theseus initially loved Phaedra and that is why he took her home to be his wife, but she never really felt any passion for him, so his love her her was fleeting as well. So in conclusion, these are the various types of love that I see in this play. As far as the kind of love that I feel in my life has been the most fullfilling, it is a combination of many of these loves put together. I definitely have a motherly love for my children. I try every day and in every way to do what is best for each of them as each of them needs me. I protect, encourage, teach, disipline, but above all else, love them unconditionally. The love for my husband started out as love for a friend, then developed into much more, a passion that at times would make my heart hurt when we were apart. From that love, a love has developed that encompasses friendship, passion, stability, companionship, security, and most of all dependability, respect, and trust. I have the love of a child for my parents, especially as the roles have changed over the past few years from caretaker to caregiver. All these loves come together to make me who I am and to help me be a more compassionate and caring person.