Phaedra vs Hippolytus

Euripides vs. Dassin The unmingled Greek legend of Phaedra probes the tragic consequences that occur when a woman becomes cozyl(a)y obsessed with her stepson. In Phaedra (1962) director Jules Dassin presents Phaedra as a woman overwhelmed by passions she can non control. This follows the interpretation of Phaedra developed by Euripides, who broke with older versions in which Phaedra was an ugliness sensualist seeking to corrupt her innocent stepson. Dassin adds political cowboy to the film by exploring the luxurious lives enjoyed by elite rapture families. Where as Hippolytus takes place in Troezen, a city in the northeastern Peloponnese.In the Hippolytus, Phaedras economise is serving a year of voluntary exile for murdering the Pallantids. Where as in Phaedra, he is a very wealthy and free man. A majority of Hippolytus revolves around the goddess Aphrodite. Where as in Phaedra there is no gods or goddesss. Euripides play Hippolytus was written in 428 B. C. , and ever since it has been regarded as one of the great classical works. In his interference of the Phaedra myth, Euripides presents Phaedra in a state of mental anguish and exhaustion brought roughly by her shaft for Hippolytus, which she strives to conceal.Euripides frames the events of the human char accomplishmenters with the presence of the gods Aphrodite and Artemis. Euripides Athenian audience was wherefore provided with prior knowledge about Phaedras guilty secret, for her passion is exposit as being imposed by the god Aphrodite. Euripides portrays Aphrodite as a terrifying and vindictive deity, distant the voluptuous woman often interpret in visual art. Her opening monologue conveys an imperious attitude, and she sees the world and its the great unwashed as her domain.Because Aphrodite is the goddess of complete, her perception of the world seems reasonable, since her power extends to the everyday lives of the mortals over whom she rules. This is not, however, the friendly emotion that today we might associate with the word get by. Rather, Euripides depicts tickling jazz as a consuming and destructive force. As Aphrodite states, those who fail to coincide the proper respect to her will face obliteration. The terrifying power of love is essential to understanding Aphrodites anger at Hippolytus and the development of the play.Aphrodite directs her delirium at Hippolytus because he refuses to worship her. He is, as he explains in Scene I, not interested in erotic love and because reveres the goddess of love from a long way off. He instead ashes chaste and worships Artemis exclusively. This, of course, infuriates Aphrodite who vows to punish him for his blasphemy. Because he will not honor erotic love, she decides that its power will destroy him, thereby proving her supremacy over generosity to all those who hear of Hippolytus destruction.Her vehicle for punishing him is Phaedra, his stepmother, who thus becomes a victim of love. Phaedras position in t he play as the agent done whom Aphrodite exacts her revenge creates an ethical problem. According to Aphrodites scheme, Phaedra must die, but unlike Hippolytus, she has not committed any offenses against the goddess of love. Phaedra therefore becomes a victim of loves power, a pawn bewitched into loving her stepson who then commits suicide out of shame. Yet as Aphrodite explains, Her suffering does not weight in the scale so much that I should let my enemies go untouched. accommodate Aphrodites need for revenge and Phaedras innocence is an interpretive argufy of the play, and Euripides does not provide an easy answer. Out of this tension arises a commutation conflict of the play, specifically concerning the relationship betwixt men and gods during the period in which Euripides wrote. This relationship seems tenuous at best and bears little resemblance to advance(a) perspectives on religion. As such, an essential question to consider is what responsibilities gods had to muckle and people to gods.Euripidess tragedy offers a few insights into this relationship. As evidenced by Aphrodites reaction to Hippolytus exclusive devotion to Artemis, humans were to worship all of the gods. This relationship, however, does not seem reciprocal. Rather, Aphrodites manipulation of Phaedra indicates that the gods had few obligations to humans. Free from the burdens of defend men, the gods used men as their playthings while humans had to worship the gods to still them and avoid incurring their wrath.Dassins Phaedra is the forty-something, second wife of shipping superpower Thanos Kyrilis, who wishes to reconcile with his estranged son Alexis, an art student living in London. The athletic and handsome Thanos is a cunning businessman involved in international commerce, but he is likable and adores his wife. He gives Phaedra expensive gifts and label his new prize ship in her honor. Phaedra is not ignored or abused by an unattractive or deceitful husband. Dassin adds pol itical punch to the film by exploring the luxurious lives enjoyed by elite shipping families.This is not done in a heavy-handed manner. The lavish villas, yachts, and fashionable overdress of the super rich are simply allowed to speak for themselves without any chromatography column grumbling by Greek commoners. Dassin takes a further jab at the Greek shippers by setting up marital relationships between his characters that match real-life marriages involving the Onassis and Niarchos shipping clans. The tragedy takes form when Thanos cajoles a reluctant Phaedra to deliver a message to Alexis in London that his father wants his twenty-four-year-old son to be at his side.From their first encounter, Phaedra and Alexis engage in a playful flirtation unlike to their relationship. Alexis invites Phaedra to meet his missy, which turns out to be a pricey sports car in a dealership window. Their empathy, however, leads to Alexis meeting with his father in Paris. When business unavoidabl y require Thanos to leave for New York City, Phaedra, persuades Alexis to remain. The supposedly mounting passion between Mercouri and Perkins lacks chemistry. All the sexual energy comes from the sultry Phaedra and her attraction to the bland Alexis is inexplicable.Nor is Dassins camera effective in addressing this sexual void. The films jumbo sex scene is an unimaginative sequence of blurred shots of the embracing pair punctuated by shots of a rain storm at the window, a gross fireplace, and glowing candles. After living together in Paris for more than than than a week, Alexis asks Phaedra to declare her love openly and return with him to London. Phaedra, however, feels compelled to rejoin her husband on the island of Hydra. Fearful of her lack of self control, she tells Alexis, Dont come. Greece brings no respite to Phaedras emotions.Although still yearning for Alexis, she is tormented by her horse sense of shame and deceit. Her only confidant is Anna (Olympia Papoudaka), her aging personal maid, who is distraught by Phaedras anguish. Annas emotions have homoerotic aspects that feel far more genuine than the emotions Alexis has projected. The women take siestas together, but their sexual intimacy remains peculiar(a) to the adoring Annas caresses. Thanos informs Alexis that the car he so admires is waiting for him in Hydra. Alexis demands to know what Phaedra desires him to do.The increasingly unstable Phaedra reverses what she had said earlier and implores Alexis to come as soon as possible, but her plans go awry when Alexis hews ever imminent to his father while becoming ever more wary of her. The sexual dynamics intensify when Ercy, Alexiss beautiful second cousin, a woman his own age, falls in love with him. Thanos and his circle are pleased at the prospect of a marriage that would further unite the shipping families. A now sullen and possessive Phaedra stands between Alexis and all that is normal. Alexis reacts by playing the role of a carefre e party boy at the local seaside tavern. He goes off with the first available woman, an act designed to cool Ercys ardor and belittle Phaedra. The film reaches its mop up when the luxury ship named Phaedra, seen launched in the films opening scenes, sinks, cleanup most of its crew. Phaedra, obsessed by her own agenda, arrives at Thanoss offices in the midst of the crisis. Ironically clad in white, she pushes her way through black-clad women flighty to know the fate of their men. Oblivious to the grief around her, Phaedra-in-white reveals her secret love to Thanos.An enraged Thanos manages to restrain himself from striking her, but beats Alexis viciously, ordering him, as he did Phaedra, to leave his sight forever. The blood-soaked Alexis returns to the family villa for a last embrace of his girl. Phaedra appears at the garage door and tells him they can now live openly as lovers he replies that he wishes Phaedra dead. The rejected Phaedra returns to the main house where she take s an overdose of dormancy pills while the now frenzied Alexis, listening to music by Bach, drives his girl over a cliff.