Phaedra

Hippolytus is far less complex than Phaedra. Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and a now-dead Amazon woman, cares only for hunting and the natural world, and embraces the virginal Diana as his patron goddess. To him: “There is no other life so free, so clean of sin, / […] As that which leaves the city walls, to be happy in the woods” (483-85). Hippolytus is determined to remain a virgin like Diana, and is presented as very innocent and naïve.

At the same time, Hippolytus is also excessively polemical. Even before he discovers Phaedra’s feelings for him, he expounds his misogynistic ideology at great length, declaring: “Woman is the root of all evil” (559); When Phaedra finally reveals her feelings to him, he launches into an even more vitriolic speech, telling her that “No woman in the world can match your wickedness!” (687), and even drawing his sword to kill her. Yet Hippolytus’s behavior is no more reasonable than Phaedra’s. He too is driven by whims that are not necessarily rational. His misogynistic tirades show him giving way to his own passions, just as Phaedra gives way to hers.

Theseus is the king of Athens. He is the husband of Phaedra and the father (by an earlier lover) of Hippolytus. He is the least sympathetic character of the play. When the play begins, he is away from home on a sacrilegious quest to help his friend Pirithous abduct Proserpina, the goddess of the dead, from the Underworld—unsurprisingly, Phaedra presumes that he is dead. Such a quest characterizes Theseus as sinful and violent, especially toward women (it is also suggested that it was Theseus who killed Hippolytus’s mother).

Theseus is thus unsympathetic even before he comes on stage—and when he does enter, he becomes, if anything, even more so. When he finds Phaedra in the throes of grief, he uses threats to compel her to reveal what is troubling her. When Phaedra alleges that Hippolytus tried to rape her, Theseus readily believes her without seeking corroboration, and condemns his own son to death without a trial; he does not even summon Hippolytus or accuse him face-to-face, as his character does in Euripides’s Hippolytus.

When Theseus discovers the truth, his violent emotions again prevail as his wild, frenzied grief wins out over reason: The play ends with him condemning Phaedra and frantically trying to reassemble the broken remains of his son’s body. Like the other characters of the play, Theseus is reactive rather than rational, illustrating the dangers of giving in to one’s destructive passions.

The Nurse is an elderly female servant of Phaedra’s, to whom she is loyal above all. Though the Nurse initially advises Phaedra to control her passions and behave ethically, the Nurse’s ethics are also practical. When the Nurse realizes that Phaedra cannot—or does not wish to—control her passions, she decides to help her find a way to satisfy those passions. When Hippolytus spurns Phaedra, the ever-loyal Nurse continues protecting her mistress; it is she who comes up with the plan of having Phaedra accuse Hippolytus of assault.

The Messenger arrives in the third act to describe the terrible death of Hippolytus. He delivers an elaborate “Messenger Speech” in the style of the Attic tragedies, detailing what has occurred offstage. Though the Messenger’s character and identity are not developed, he does grieve for Hippolytus as he describes his last moments.