Distinguishing the Tragic Hero "Not recognizing her beloved, she both looks at him and asks where he may be. At last she knows too well what's lying there; she lifts to the Gods a sad, accusing stare; then, moaning, cold, and all but dead, the sweet maid drops unconscious at her lover's feet" (p. 401). From this phrase alone, it is obvious that Jean Racine's Phaedra (1677) is a tragic play, featuring a tragic hero. The tragic …showed first 75 words of 1222 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1222 total…Hippolytus in that her error of judgment was the catalyst in both Theseus' and Hippolytus' harmatias. Phaedra's accusation of Hippolytus caused his death and Oenone's suicide. As a result of her own actions, Phaedra committed suicide, "I drank to give my burning veins some peace, a poison which Medea brought to Greece." (p. 402). Source: Racine, J. (1677). Phaedra. In S. Lawall (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of World Literature. New York: Norton & Company. By: Deborah Cole