This scene echoes the first scene of Phaedra's confession to Oenone and foreshadows Scene 5, in which she declares her love to Hippolytus. There is the same crescendo from timid hints to complete admission of love. First, Aricia is the slave freed by Hippolytus, then a queen whom he restores to the throne, and finally the object of his love. There is also a tone, if not of remorse, at least of regret in Hippolytus' declarations, in which he describes himself as "ashamed, desperate."
On the other hand, Hippolytus' passion lacks Phaedra's tragic intensity. He is the young lover suffering the familiar pangs of unrequited love, listless and unhappy, both afraid of love and captivated by Aricia.
Scenes 2 and 3, by consecrating the love of Aricia and Hippolytus and underlining the latter's distaste for his stepmother, prepare for the almost unbearable poignancy of Scene 5. Phaedra's love is now doomed by Hippolytus' interest in Aricia, as well as by his very nature. Incapable of base sentiments such as hatred and resentment, he harbors a sentiment even more painful to a woman as passionate and proud as Phaedra: indifference. Hippolytus feels only polite annoyance at his prospective meeting with the queen.
