PHAEDRA’S LOVE

HEADLINE:

Author: Sarah Kane

Title: Phaedra’s Love

Editorial: Methuen

Year of publication: 1998

Place of publication: London

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Phaedra: She is the mother of Strophe, stepmother of Hyppolitus and wife of Theseus. She is in love of Hyppolitus, who violated her, and for this reason she commits her suicide.

Hyppolitus: He is a young and fat prince, son of Theseus. He spends all the day eating hamburgers, watching television, due to this we think that he is down in the dumps. He is a little obsessive in the sex, so usually is having relations with men and women. He violate Phaedra,m so he went to the prison, At the end of the play he dies.

Strophe: She is the daughter of Phaedra. She is very sad due to the die of her mother. At the end of the play Theseus kills her by equivocation.

Doctor: He is like a psychologist that appearances at the beginning of the play to talk with Phaedras about the ill of Hyppolitus.

Theseus: He is a king. He is married with Phaedra, and he is the father of Hyppolitus. He never is at home, in fact he never goes since he married, he only returned when he know that his wife had died. He also commit his suicide.

Priest: He is a gay priest (he has oral sex with Hyppolitus) that goes to the prison due to talk with Hyppolitus and had discover what happened.

By other had there are more secondary characters: The woman 1 and 2, the man 1 and 2, the policeman 1 and 2 and the boy. They only appear at the last scene.

PLOT:

Hyppolitus lives practically in his room of the real palace eating, watching tv and sleeping. Phaedra, her stepmother, is in love of him, and she usually talks with the doctor saying what happens to her. She and the doctor talks about the secrets of him, they are also friends. One day ( of her birthday) she goes to his room and he tells her that he did sex with a man, so after she confess to him that she is in love and she tries to seduce. They had oral sex, but after he refuses her, he violates her and he kills her. Due to this Hyppolitus goes to the prison. At the Phaedra’s funeral, there were some men, policemen and a boy that want to kill Hyppolitus, and unfortunately Theseus, that also was there, he didn’t recognise her and he killed by equivocation, so he also commits his suicide because he feels culpable.

SPACE:

The play is in the king real palace, in the Hyppolitus room( although also at the other rooms), in the cell of the prison, after in the Phaedras funeral and out of the court.

TIME:

It seems to be in actual present. Pass some days or years, we don’t know surely because it doesn’t specify.

STYLISTIC AND LITERARY RESOURCES:

The play is written in prose. The language is easier and a little vulgar ( she uses insults as idiot…) It hasn’t got any difficulty to the comprehension, so is easy and pleasant.

PERSONAL OPINION:

Not talking if the play have liked me or not , I think that we should think is about the reality that it tries to shows. Really now a days the people abuses of their freedom, thinking that to be owners of their life they can do what they want and that is no the true, due to “my freedom ends at the beginning of the other” as says a Spanish phrase. What I’m trying to say is that usually the youth people planning a life replete of drugs, sex and alcohol that some many years before nobody could imagine.

By other hand I’m agree with the homosexuality, but in other way, because in this play what happens usually is infidelities, incest…