If acts had titles like the chapters of a book, Act III might be called "The Gathering Storm." The tragedy latent in the situation is now about to erupt. Orestes' glimpse of happiness has transformed his passive grief into a determination to act. He tells Pylades that he is tired of this resignation and that he is about to resort to desperate measures. Racine's preparations have made the threats entirely convincing. Orestes' love is powerful enough to provoke his volcanic despair, which is exasperated by his pride, which has been wounded by Pyrrhus' victory.
Here for the first time the frightening quality of his love is clearly expressed. It has lost all nobility and abnegation. Orestes wants to kidnap Hermione, not in order to conquer her love, but to make her share his unhappiness, to wring tears from her.
Paradoxically, the same decision increases his stature to tragic proportions. It is not merely a private vendetta but a grandiose act of defiance of a mortal against an iniquitous fate that has singled him out in order to persecute him.
Orestes faithfully follows Pylades' advice to camouflage his emotions. His perfect hypocrisy proves the seriousness of his intentions. Otherwise, he would not have deprived himself of the bitter pleasure of venting his despair. Hermione suspects that there is something unnatural about such meekness. The audience knows it too. What Racine has achieved is the lull before the storm, the anxious silence on the battlefield before the attack.
