Explore the tragic rise of Hermione's love for Pyrrhus in Racine's Andromaque, where passion and dispossession lead to a loss of self and a descent into madness. Discover how Racine masterfully uses fury and jealousy to advance the tragic action.
Extract
[...] In fact, we see a series of very short interrogative phrases that translate her wandering. We notice the repetition of grammatical structures: 'what transport seizes me? What sorrow devours The heroine uses many exclamation marks: 'The cruel one With what eye did he dismiss me ' From verses 1399 to 1403, the heroine uses a series of rhetorical questions to express her indignation at Pyrrhus' displayed indifference. Hermione seems to be deprived of herself, she speaks of her 'heart' as if it were a foreign entity to herself. [...]
[...] We really have here the demonstration of love as alienating and depriving the character of himself. Hermione speaks particularly of herself in the third person: 'he (Pyrrhus) does not inquire if 'one wishes elsewhere his life or his death'. A character who suffers The character seems to be a plaything of his emotions and a plaything of the actions of others, particularly Pyrrhus. Through the personal pronoun often used as a direct object, Hermione often shows that she is in a position of passivity: 'transport me seizes', 'sorrow devours me'. [...]
[...] The confusion is at its peak towards the end of the excerpt, Hermione continues to contradict herself. A tragic rise of love The passionate love that Hermione devotes to Pyrrhus gradually transforms her into a potential murderer, hatred is never as close to love as in this excerpt. She wishes her death in a very violent way through brief, concise, and cutting phrases like: 'may he perish', 'may he die'. Hermione speaks of a fatal hymen. Like in all tragedies, the passionate love will inexorably guide the characters towards death. [...]
