An Introduction to the Sympathy for Phaedra

Phaedra is in the quintessential sense the tragic heroine, as it seems to fulfil every quality required to be one. She is able to arouse compassion and terror at the same time. Phaedra is not altogether guilty, and not altogether innocent. She is drawn by her destiny and by angry gods into an unlawful and adulterous passion (not incestuous, in Athenian eyes), which she is the first to hold in contempt.

She makes every endeavor to overcome it. She convinces her husband to send her stepson into exile and in the later part of the verse she chose death rather than to disclose her secret to anyone.

When confronted by Oenone, she relates her tale in a manner which convincing enough to interpret it as a curse, as she does so with shame and confusion. She even goes to an extent to call herself a monster. If one looks at the entire text of the verse, one does tend to notice that throughout the play she has not slandered or even made any accusations at or to anyone but has always implies so.

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Oenone has always been the scapegoat, she lied to Theseus about Phaedra's and Hippolytus's encounter. Phaedra acquiesced to entire idea as she was in a weak state of mind and was distressed. In such a state, on being shown a light at the end of the tunnel by Oenone she goes along. Beside herself in her thoughts she decides to tell the truth and to vindicate Hippolytus, who is not guilty of the crime he is accused of by Oenone.

At the time of her death, she wants to maintain a clean conscience even after death when judged for her crime in the underworld. She feels a sense of guilt for the acts she implied to commit, and goes to Theseus to confess. The act of taking poison which Medea brought to Greece symbolizes an attempt at self purification in death, the only course possible to her. The mention of the sorceress also adds to the sanctity and elegance of the act in itself.

We may conclude that Racine has portrayed Phaedra throughout the play as essentially virtuous, yearning for purity and as a victim of a goddess. There is an irony to her character - and its portrayal, as it represents a her as a sinner who hates her sin.

In Henrik Ibsens play' Hedda Gabler', Hedda is the unconventional heroine. She seems to portray a character who is extremely complex, and exceptionally unique. Even though she has been portrayed as an evil and demonic person with low moral values, we cannot help but imagine her to be well bred, distinguished and proud. She has personified a sense of grandeur throughout the play even unto her death which in itself was a certain act of defiance of her surroundings and a self proclamation of her victory and her desire to break free from the usual moribund rituals of society.

If one analysis the situation she is in, one can possibly imagine the agony Hedda is General Gabler's daughter who has inherited an aristocratic view of life. She is used to the better things in life and hence the transition becomes all the more difficult. She moved from a person living in the high society, the so called upper class to a relatively stuffy, provincial and a middle class society married to a person she despises, leading the life of expectancy.

She is bored with her current life as is, therefore she looks towards other ways and means of entertaining herself. She has expectancies for Tesman, she wants him to run for a public office, or at least get a professorship so that their monotonous life takes an unexpected turn, and leads to some form of excitement.

The dream of becoming a hostess, of keeping thoroughbred horses, is shattered the very first day after they return from their honeymoon. She turns to Judge Brack, leading him on, she lets Eilert Loevborg - her old suitor, back into her life again, she reunites with her old school mate Thea Elvsted. She wants to play with their lives, and debase them. Eilert is well settled and has ridden himself of his old bad habits. He has been able to do so with the help of Mrs. Elvsted. Hedda is overcome with jealousy on seeing the two of them together and immediately tries to win control over him as she did, when she was a spinster.

Envisioning all this we can see that she is a woman looking for a means to rid herself from a trapped marriage. She will not adopt any means which do not go along with the society. The only possible way of doing this was her death, which was probably contemplated earlier on. The act of her death portrayed a sense of release and of independence. Hence, in both Phaedra and Hedda Gabler, the tragic heroines have symbolized death as a medium of release, of freedom and of purification.