Research Paper on:
Love in Phaedra by Jean Racine

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
squarely fall into the love category of that theory. But how does this unrequited love and forbidden love fall into that category? And how does it serve as the binding  force which propels the rest of the characters through the rest of the play? There are at least two types of love that can be defined in this story. Firstly,  there is the Godlike love that offers positive rewards, and secondly, there is the human kind of love which offers nothing but suffering. Yet, for all the suffering, Racine seems  to say at the plays end that flawed as it is, human love is more pure than that of the gods. It can be said that this whole story  is about the perversion of love by the gods for their own ends. Aphrodite, goddess of love, is apparently incensed because Hipploytus, the young, virile stepson of Phaedra will not  worship her. Instead, he has chosen to favor the goddess Artemis with his attentions. In order to teach him a lesson, or perhaps out of a sense of rejection she  causes Phaedra to fall in love with Hipploytus. When she confesses her love to her stepson, he is disgusted and turns from her. Desolate in her loneliness, Phaedra knows that  the love she has inside of her will consume her as long as she is living. Feeling much the same way that Aphrodite has felt, rejected, she sets about  to commit suicide, but before doing so, writes a letter which implicates Hipploytus in her death. When he is confronted with his stepmothers accusations, Hipploytus vehemently denies them, but the  King will not listen to reason. The King exiles his own son for life, then the King calls upon his father, Poseidon, to punish Hipploytus. Tired of arguing with