A Tragic Phenomenon: Aspects of Love and Hate in Racine’s Theater

Abstract

Analysis of the passions of the soul preoccupied many writers and philosophers in seventeenth century France. René Descartes, who, published his Treatise on the Passions of the Soul, was the most famous of them. In his work, he classified human passions within a hierarchical framework. He disdained the passions as animalistic impulses which originate in the body. However the soul rules over the base passions, exercising its dual power of reason and will to control them. Reason must direct the body, which is nothing more than an object, or a machine. Whenever necessary the soul must repress the passions which are basically reprehensible so as to arrest their manifestations. Therefore love must be subjugated by the laws that are applied to all the other human passions. Reason must be able to examine at all times whether perfection always resides within the person one has chosen to love. Pierre Corneille’s dramas illustrated perfectly this concept of love in the numerous tragedies he composed during his life. His protagonists fall in love with people they consider to be absolutely perfect for them. However, the political world creates existential situations which force them to choose between the passion for the one they love and their commitment to personal honor and duty.