The leap from
Greek to Roman tragedy was marked by a philosopher tragedian named Seneca.
Seneca was the pioneer of Roman tragedies, who in writing tragedies molded the
old Greek subjects of tragedies over once more. But in remodeling the old
subjects, Seneca could not follow the classical codes of composing tragedies ,set
by classical playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. So if we
judge with absolute literary criteria, we shall find the plays of Seneca so far
inferior to the Greek tragedies. However, in one respect his influence was
supreme and it was in introducing ’revenge’ as the subject matter for
tragedy.The ‘revenge tragedy’ was established by Seneca and had powerful
influence upon the Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights such as Thomas
kyd, Shakespeare and Webster who composed such revenge tragedies as ‘The Spanish
Tragedy’, Hamlet’ and ‘The Duchess of Mulfi’ respectively.
In ‘Phaedra’ Seneca used ‘revenge’ as the
mainspring of action which often takes the from of a wild kind of justice.So
the principal motive behind the action of this play is revenge,which is to be
found in the actions of Hippolytus,Phaedra,Nurse and Theseus. Let us first of
all turn to Hippolytus, a victim of Venus' revenge.
Hippolytus is a young man of extraordinary
glamour. He is every atom a prince and a dream-man of young women.But from his
speech we come to know that he is more interested in nature than in women.He
prefers to pray the hunt-goddess Diana to Venus, the goddess of love. Venus and
Diana are antithetical to each other. Venus loathes Diana,as she fails to evoke
passion for love in the Virgin goddess Diana. Venus also becomes avengeful on
Hippolytus for not engaging in any love affair with women and disliking them.
And she provokes an illicit love in Phedra for Hippolytus. So the cause of the
unnatural passion of Phaedra is the revengeful motive of Venus.
Besides this divine ‘revenge’, we also
find the humans taking revenge for misdoings done on themselves. In Phaedra ,we
recognize ‘revenge’ as the driving force for her action. Phaedra in spite of
being a young woman is married to an old man notorious for maltreatment of his
wives and is now deserted and betrayed. She is intensely miserable in her solicitude
and wants to take ‘revenge’ on Theseus by making love with his beautiful son
Hippolytus.So her resentment and loneliness finds an outlet in her revengeful
wild love for Hippolytus.
But the most successful and savage kind of
‘revenge’ is taken by Nurse, in collaboration with Phaedra against Hippolytus ,
when he refuses to comply with Phaedra’s request. Phaedra is incredibly selfish
and shows no hesitation in making known her passion to Hippolytus. But when
Hippolytus refuses her point-blank, the Nurse makes a false charge of violation
against Hippolytus and Phaedra consents to act accordingly.And what the Nurse
and Phaedra want by this false charge is to take revenge by denouncing
Hippolytus to Theseus.So ,here the revenge motive in Phaedra comes from her
sense of humiliation at her stepson’s refusal to accept her love.
Revenge motive is also seen in Theseus' cursing
of his son Hippolytus. When he is informed that his son has violated his
wife,he is shocked beyond measure.He feels terribly outrage and curses
Hippolytus in the most extravagant manner. He justifies his curse, as an
avenging justice.
Revenge also acts as a driving force in
Phaedra’s suicide. When the dead body of Hipolytus is brought to the Palace,
Phaedra’s grief knows no bound. She declares Hippolytus as the innocent boy
charged with inchastity and her relentless feeling incites her to end her life.
She kills herself to pay the dues of death.At least she takes revenge on
herself too.
Concluding our speech we can say that these are the
elements which constitute ‘Phaedra’ as a revenge tragedy. But Seneca’s
treatment of ‘revenge’ is different from
his Greek predecessors and successors. Before Seneca,Aeschylus and Euripides
wrote two revenge tragedies such as ‘Agamemnon’ and ‘Medea’ respectively. In
‘Agamemnon’ Clytemnestra and in ‘Medea’ Medea take revenge for the wrongdoings
done to then. So revenge is a kind of sacred duty to them and they have ethical
ground for their revenge. But in case of Phaedra, revenge takes the form of a
wild kind of justice. Her revenge is not only ethically ungrounded but also
beastly. However, Seneca’s attempt to portray the elements of revenge is
remarkable. Moreover, as a tragedian his influence is not undeniable as he
established the revenge traditions which helped the Elizabethan and Jacobean
playwrights to from the perfect model for revenge tragedy.