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From: Susan Muthua
Date: 3/1/2004
Time: 3:39:59 PM
Remote Name: 10.2.10.110
What are the various forms of love that afflict the characters in Phaedra? Yes, it was an interesting play, featuring romanitc episodes and how to deal with a kind of a reality once you fall in love but find out that you can't stay, and also finding that you love a person unconditionally and can't deny it. First, in the play we see a form of love that comes with duty and respect.Although Thesseus is a womanizer, his wife Phaedra loves him. She stands by him and still welcomes him home everytime he is back after doing an undesirable act of womanizing. We also see that Thesseus has love for his wife and will do anyhting to protect her and her name.She stands by her and assures her of his love.He says that she has borne him two sons and had brought her all the way from her home to be his wife. There is also the form of love between parent and child.Thesseus was a hero. He was a womanizer too.With this combination, Hippo loves him abd wants to be a hero like him. Although he is not happy about his father womanizing, he still has love for him.Phaedra has unconditional love for her two sons. She wants to be there for them and also to protect them at all times.She says that she will do anything for his sons.Oenone has love for Pheadra and she is ready to be there for her at all costs. Although she is just a nurse, she shows some kind of parent/child love. At her wedding, Phaedra falls so deeply in love with her husband's son Hippolytus.She can't stop thinking about him.She knows how wrong and insane it is and so she chooses to keep it to herself. Later, she told Hippo how she feels about him and Hippo thought that she was crazy. Hippo falls uncontrollably in love with Aricia when he first sees her.The reality is that Aricia is a forbidden fruit and off limitd.Hippo struggles with the reality and cannot control his feelings for Aricia.Aricia also loves Hippo but knowing that she is the only one left in the family and cannot be married, she struggles to accept that she and Hippo cannot stay in love. Hippo knows that it would upset his father if he knew that he was in love with Aricia and so he keeps it a secret. All through the play, we see characters stuggling with a form of love.It is interesting that there are so many things that happen all around the world, but we will not really know how they feel until we are caught up in such situations.It is through reading such plays that we can know what happens outside our little circle.