The vision of order, however, is more a promise than an actuality. Racine does not dwell on it. What his theater forcefully conveys is the overwhelming suffering which results from an excessive and unreasonable importance attached to the self and to its passions. His characters are either endowed with highly emotional and self-centered natures, or inflexible principles which make them reject any form of escape from torment. Significantly, the confidants, who often speak with the voice of common sense and worldly wisdom, are invariably ignored except when, like Oenone, they can serve their masters' destructive passions.
Racine emphasizes the somber mood of tragedy by eliminating all distracting situations. Characters whose interaction brings no conflict (such as Orestes and Andromache, for instance) never meet. Comic relief is completely excluded. In spite of the celebrated lucidity of classical characters, their soliloquies are never cool, intellectual self-analysis. They are the anxious expression of inner turmoil and do not relieve the tension.
Finally, Racine's tragedies are devoid of hope. They begin in an atmosphere of impending doom which steadily intensifies up to the final scene of madness or death.
On the technical side, Racine's observance of the three unities is absolute. His plays always take place within a twenty-four-hour period in a single locale. The action is continuous without digression. He readily adapts to these limitations by presenting the conflict in psychological terms and beginning the story at the final crisis. Racine confirms that the universe is a mystery, and great writers who dramatize it faithfully produce works which can always be interpreted in more than one way.
