Illegitimacy and Incest in Three Plays

Hippolytus is the illegitimate son of Theseus, but an obsessively virtuous man who incurs the wrath of Aphrodite because of his rejection of her and his alliance with Artemis, a "Maiden" who cavorts platonically with Hippolytus. In the Prologue, Aphrodite admits arranging the initial attraction of Phaedra, Hippolytus's stepmother, for Hippolytus: "That was my work" (Euripides 164), says Aphrodite. From that point forth, the love, or lust, of Phaedra for Hippolytus will be a plague haunting Hippolytus.

Immediately, then, one sees that the role of the gods is paramount in the incest theme of Hippolytus. If Phaedra is manipulated by Aphrodite, or even the puppet of the goddess, then her feelings of incestuous longing for her stepson are less a matter of morality then of tragedy. Aphrodite herself is manipulated by her own emotions of love for Hippolytus and/

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s imbalanced need for love, human beings become horribly entangled in complications which both advance and thwart that love. The gods in this play are merely extensions of the same imbalance, although they have more power than human beings. The gods merely take advantage of human weakness which already exists, whether it be an attraction between stepmother and stepson which one or both might be slightly in denial about, or whether it be the lust which produced Hippolytus out of wedlock, or whether it be Theseus's unexamined hatred toward his son (and/or toward himself) for his illegitimacy. Certainly that illegitimacy plays the central role in Theseus's swift acceptance of the truth of Phaedra's letter. Theseus goes so far as to suggest that Hippolytus will use the excuse of his illegitimacy to explain away the letter, although Hippolytus has made no such suggestion, never does, and obviously never had any thought of making such a suggestion. He does, however, rebuke his father for having believed such a lie about him, for having doubted him at all, and declares that the king's legitimate sons should be as virtuous as he himself is. The case of Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester, in Shakespeare's King Lear, i
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Earth Sun, Hippolytus Yes, Hippolytus Edmund, Hippolytus Phaedra, Giovanni Friar, Wherefore I/, She's Whore, Edgar Edmund's, Theseus Father, Apparently Edmund, illegitimate son, pity she's whore, king lear, pity she's, she's whore, 'tis pity, 'tis pity she's, 164 aphrodite, issue illegitimacy, role gods, longing stepson, stepmother stepson, euripides 164 aphrodite, shakespeare's king lear, ford's 'tis pity,
Approximate Word count = 3481
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)