Scene 2 is an introduction to the violence which is to follow. The transition seems necessary to distract the audience's attention from Andromache and to direct their feelings toward the new phase of the tragedy. Without this briefing, the audience might not be properly receptive to the spectacle of Hermione's frenzy. A certain amount of anticipation enhances the spectacle.
It is indicative of Racine's perceptiveness that he does not put any long speeches in Hermione's mouth, that she remains disturbingly reticent. In moments of great stress words seem meaningless, and the mind retreats before the overwhelming presence of grief.
The fury implicit in Hermione's ominous silence is revealed in the following scene. Its virulence belies the notion of classical restraint. What identifies Hermione with her era is her lack of hysteria. She is dominated, but not blinded, by jealousy. She remains perfectly lucid about the means of revenge — that is, she uses Orestes as her tool. That she succeeds is a tribute to her cunning, for she is asking of Orestes an incredible action: the murder of a king by a guest. In Greek terms, in which hospitality and sacred loyalty were a man's first duty, this was the most heinous of crimes, and for seventeenth century France, which still held the doctrine of the divine right of kings, it was equally dreadful.
