I did not recall how flowery and self-indulgent Racine's characters could get! Part of that is the structure of the alexandrine--it often forces the playwright to move the plot forward in long, roundabout ways. It's almost like showing rather than telling, but really it's like you're showing by telling the audience more than they ever needed to know.
The plot of this French play from the 17th century is that Phèdre, Thésée's (Theseus') wife, is in love with her stepson, Hippolyte, while Hippolyte is in love with Aricie, a slave of whom his father does not approve. Everyone mistakenly "finds out" that Thésée is dead and they all decide to confess their love to each other. The reactions that ensue would be laughable if they didn't result in such tragic ends later on. Oh, yeah, in case you didn't guess, half the cast dies--that's a French Greek tragedy for you!
The main characters are pretty annoying. My favorite character in this was actually Panope, a servant. She's the only one who speaks normally and isn't all "woe is me!" She doesn't really have time for that stuff. Although I will say that Théramène, Hippolyte's tutor, had the best speech by far. His monologue wins the award for the most gruesome thing I've ever had to read in French.
"De son généreux sang la trace nous conduit:
Les rochers en sont teints; les ronces dégouttantes
Portent de ses cheveux les dépouilles sanglantes."
For a Racine Greek tragedy it wasn't bad. The French was a tad difficult--mostly due to the flowery language--but luckily the edition I read from was translated into English on the right side, so I could figure out which flowery adjectives and adverbs I'd have to look up and which ones I could skip.
~6/10~
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