Aricie

Summary

Dominique Pagani discusses Aricie in connection with Racine's Phèdre, in sessions ranging from 2017 to 2022. He first places her in the plot: she is the last survivor of the Pallantides, the family exterminated by Theseus, who keeps her under house arrest and forbids her to any man1. She is also the one Hippolytus loves and the recipient of his confession, a scene he often returns to23. He qualifies the image of the innocent girl: Aricie wants to "bring pain into an unfeeling soul", which he reads as a sadistic impulse4. A Cinderella in appearance, she loves in Hippolytus the fact that he has never loved and that he resists love, and she wants to make him yield and disarm him5. He sees her seize on the confession, somewhat flirtatiously. In 2022 he calls her a slightly naughty little "goody two-shoes": she loves Hippolytus for his shyness, but her unconscious draws her towards Theseus6.

1. 1#9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…17 Dec 2020 · 46:49
2. 2#2.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 1:05:06
3. 3#9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…17 Dec 2020 · 1:23:54
4. 4#2.5 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 39:20
5. 5#10 Benefits and harms of amnesia…24 Dec 2020 · 41:30
6. 6#10 Ukraine: from the problem of “edges” to the unleashing of war24 Feb 2022 · 7:58

Summary produced automatically from 12 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.