Like Oedipus, Orestes is confronted with the unsparing vision of his crime. He rejects the last weapon against despair, rationality. He knows the colossal irony of his act. He has sunk to the last stages of ignominy for nothing, for a promise that Hermione unconscionably repudiates. Rarely has a playwright conjured up such a mood of bleak despair.
The irony of his fate is further underlined by the fact that once again — and despite all his efforts to the contrary — he has done nothing to deserve it. He intended to kill Pyrrhus, but his weapon never actually touched his intended victim.
The introduction of Orestes' madness and his persecution by the Eumenides is in strict conformity with the legend. But Racine is obviously motivated by more than respect for tradition. He wants to sustain the mood and end the play on an authentically tragic note. The major features of tragedy are skillfully integrated and easily discernible.
Orestes' misfortune is not a fortuitous event. It has been engineered by a hostile fate and is thus elevated above a mere romantic imbroglio. Furthermore, the gods confer on him the dreadful distinction of making his suffering particularly harrowing, beyond calculation.
