For the purposes of the plot, the famous description of Hippolytus' death is unnecessary. The scene might have ended quite adequately with Theramenes' terse announcement: "I have seen the sweetest of mortals perish." His subsequent elaboration is quite frankly a bravura piece. According to the French scholar and critic Antoine Adam, "This story represents Racine's attempt to introduce into the dramatic idiom the beauty of Euripides' ornate style and, in a more general way, of ancient poetry." The death scene, although unexpected and untypical, is not jarring. Racine, with his unerring good taste, knows the danger of consistent understatement The artist, lest he lapse into monotony, must give imagination its due, and the cool classicist must occasionally make way for the romantic—particularly when the scene in question is the climax both of the plot and the tragedy of the play and its action has taken place offstage.
The images of the descriptions are overwhelming, bizarre, fantastic; but as Boileau says in his Art Poétique,
There are no serpents nor odious monsters
Which cannot please the eye when imitated by art;
The pleasing skill of a delicate brush
Makes of the most horrible object a charming thing.
The reference to a delicate brush applies perfectly to Racine's art, as it was probably intended to. Despite the violence and the extraordinary nature of the events related, they fit within a well-ordered scheme representing an accelerating rhythm, from the slow, majestic vision of Hippolytus' departure to the frantic climax of his being dragged behind his runaway horses. It is a splendid, dynamic description, followed by the calmer yet profounder tragedy of Hippolytus' death at the gates of the tomb of his ancestors. A note of tragic irony reinforces the intensity of the scene as Aricia encounters her dead lover at the temple which was to witness their vows.
A quality which unfortunately must elude the English-speaking reader is the music which Racine handles here with particular care: alliteration, suggestive sounds, and an eloquent rhythm which emphasizes the movement of the action.
The play's denouement leaves us with the Aristotelian feelings of pity and terror. We are horrified by the total havoc wreaked by Phaedra's ravenous passion. Three of the characters have died in physical agony or mental anguish. Those who remain have been bereft of hope. Aricia has been brought back to life, but, as Ismene indicates, it is a life of grief. Theseus has become an old man drained of strength, even the strength to express his rage and grief by punishing the one responsible.
The guiltless characters elicit our profound pity. But even Phaedra cannot be a complete object of horror. Such was not the author's intention. He wanted our indignation to be mitigated by compassion. Racine notes in his preface:
Phaedra is neither completely guilty nor completely innocent. She has been forced by her destiny and by the anger of the gods into an illegitimate passion which horrifies her more than anybody. She strives desperately to overcome it. She would rather die than let anybody know. And when she is forced to reveal it, she speaks of it with a shame that shows that her crime is more a punishment of the gods than an expression of her will.
