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| Character | Hippolytus | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Angry, Scolding, Persuasive, Lamenting | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Hippolytus' tirade agains women | |
Summary
Hyppolitus is the illegitimate son of Theseus, the mythical founder-king of Athens, who during the play is in exile in the city of Troezen for having killed another king and his sons. The play centers on Phaedra's (Hippolytus' stepmother) love for her stepson which ultimately leads her to humiliation and suicide. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, inspires Phaedra's mad love as a revenge on Hippolytus for honoring Artemis instead of her. Theseus, thinking that Hippolytus is responsible for his wife's death, punishes him and eventually he is killed. In the end Artemis tells Theseus the truth and Hippolytus forgives his father before he dies.
In the second scene of the play we learn from the Chorus that Phaedra has been feeling sick and hasn't been sleeping or eating. Phaedra has a long conversation with her nurse and eventually confesses that she is feeling ill because of her love for Hippolytus. She wants to keep her honor intact and has decided to kill herself. The nurse comforts her and persuades her to endure her pain. She then meets Hippolytus and tells him about Phaedra's love for him but makes him swear that he won't tell anybody about it.
In this monologue, after learning from the nurse about his stepmother's love for him, Hippolytus reacts with an angry tirade against the evil nature of women.
In the second scene of the play we learn from the Chorus that Phaedra has been feeling sick and hasn't been sleeping or eating. Phaedra has a long conversation with her nurse and eventually confesses that she is feeling ill because of her love for Hippolytus. She wants to keep her honor intact and has decided to kill herself. The nurse comforts her and persuades her to endure her pain. She then meets Hippolytus and tells him about Phaedra's love for him but makes him swear that he won't tell anybody about it.
In this monologue, after learning from the nurse about his stepmother's love for him, Hippolytus reacts with an angry tirade against the evil nature of women.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| HIPPOLYTUS Great Zeus, why didst thou, to man's sorrow, put woman, evil counterfeit, to dwell where shines the sun? If thou wert minded that the human race should multiply, it was not from women they should have drawn their stock, but in thy temples they should have paid gold or iron or ponderous bronze and bought a family, each man proportioned to his offering, and so in independence dwelt, from women free. But now as soon as ever we would bring this plague into our home we bring its fortune to the ground. 'Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief, gives her a dower and packs her off; while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! his house's wealth. For he is in this dilemma; say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or, if he gets a good wife but useless kin, he tries to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as wife mere cipher, incapable from simplicity. I hate a clever woman; never may she set foot in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger store of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred. No servant should ever have had access to a wife, but men should put to live with them beasts, which bite, not talk, in which case they could not speak to any one nor be answered back by them. But, as it is, the wicked in their chambers plot wickedness, and their servants carry it abroad. Even thus, vile wretch, thou cam'st to make me partner in an outrage on my father's honour; wherefore I must wash that stain away in running streams, dashing the water into my ears. How could I commit so foul a crime when by the very mention of it I feel myself polluted? Be well assured, woman, 'tis only my religious scruple saves thee. For had not I unawares been caught by an oath, 'fore heaven! I would not have refrained from telling all unto my father. But now I will from the house away, so long as Theseus is abroad, and will maintain strict silence. But, when my father comes, I will return and see how thou and thy mistress face him, and so shall I learn by experience the extent of thy audacity. Perdition seize you both! I can never satisfy my hate for women, no! not even though some say this is ever my theme, for of a truth they always are evil. So either let some one prove them chaste, or let me still trample on them for ever. |
