Keywords: psychoanalysis and the prototype deviation of ancient homogeneous Racine
Jane. 6? 1 Racine is the most important tragic writer in the prosperous period of French classicism, and his works represent the highest achievement of classical tragedy. He was born in a small official family. His parents died when he was a child and he was adopted by his grandmother and aunt. Racine is brilliant and quick-thinking. There are several things that affect his life's creation: first, he received Jensen education in a monastery, taught Latin and Greek, and had a deep understanding of ancient western culture; Second, Moliere Theatre rehearsed his original plays "Debit" and "Alexander", which enabled him to master the creative experience of stage plays; Third, his talent was appreciated by Louis XIV, the king of the sun. He used to be a historian and private secretary of the king, and he often went in and out of the court, which enabled him to observe the life of the noble court on the spot and won him the protection of the king. Andromache (1667) and Feider (1667), two representative classical tragedies, established Racine's position in the history of French literature.
Classicism is the most important literary trend of thought in Europe in the17th century, especially in France with a strong color of monarchy, which produced famous writers such as Moliere, Gao Naiyi and Racine. Classicism is reflected in literature, and its main feature is to imitate ancient times and attach importance to rules. Classical scholars regard ancient Greek and Roman literature as models. They adopted the system and theme of ancient literature, reflected the life of the times with ancient characters, and also catered to the aesthetic interest of worshipping the ancient times at that time. The most prominent feature of the classical drama they created within the system is to abide by the "three unifications", that is, the "three unifications", that is, the time, place and plot are unified, that is to say, the plot can only be completed within 24 hours, the event takes place in the same place, and the whole drama can only have one clue. These rules and regulations of classicism have brought great restrictions to creation, but after all, they meet the aesthetic needs of French people who pay attention to artistic concentration and structural symmetry. Even so, the "three unifications" still become the shackles of creation in some aspects, and how to "dance with shackles" is a problem that classical dramatists must face. At this point, Racine showed the creative wisdom of genius, creatively enriched other people's helpless plots in simplicity, and set off great waves in the one-way plot development. Therefore, his tragedy has become a model of the three unifications.
Faidel is one of Racine's representative works and a mature work of Racine's classical tragedy. In this play, Racine absorbs the material from ancient Greek mythology, combines the reversal of ancient Greek tragedy, the elements of suffering and the exotic factors of French tragedy, endows the myth prototype with new humanistic connotation, deeply analyzes the psychological mechanism of Faidel's incest lust, and reveals the homogeneity of "from Greece to Paris" on the road of human growth.
First, the deviation of myth prototype.
The story of Faidel originated from the myths and legends of Hippolytus in ancient Greece. Hippolytus was the son of King theseus of Athens. He pursued the hunting goddess Al themis, and was proud of his extraordinary association with the goddess, so he refused to associate with other women and even despised the god of love, Avelot Dieter. This made Cupid very angry, so she made her stepmother Feider fall madly in love with Hippolytus, but she refused. Faidel committed suicide in shame, leaving a suicide note framing Hippolytus' crime. When theseus saw the suicide note, he was very angry, so he exiled Hippolytus and put him to death with Poseidon's curse.
In Racine's tragedy Faidel, the image of the goddess of love and hunting no longer appears, and Hippolytus is no longer an unfaithful young hunter chasing the goddess of hunting. He fell in love with Alicia, the sister of a family feud. Faidel expressed her love to the prince after receiving the news of theseus's death, but he refused, which made her feel ashamed. However, the news of the king's death is just a rumor. When Faidel learned that the king and the prince would come back together, the self-interest of saving her reputation made her accept the wet nurse's plan and frame the prince for her plot. In this process, Faidel hesitated, and reason repeatedly urged her to confess the secret, but when theseus told her son that he loved Alicia, Faidel completely lost his mind. Jealous, she silently let Hippolytus be ravaged by Poseidon's giant horse. When the news of Hippolytus' death came, Fadel was in great pain, drank Medea poison and admitted the fact of being framed. Finally, theseus, an ignorant and brave hero, put an end to the whole tragedy and said, "I will forget the historical grievances and take her (Alicia) as my own child.".
Greek mythology is the soil of the whole European literature and art, and mythological archetypes can be seen everywhere in the classical works of17th century, especially in the tragic works. Racine is particularly good at drawing nutrition from myths, and the mythical prototype constitutes his creative material and inspiration. However, Racine did not faithfully copy and copy the prototype, but deviated from the original mythological image, adapted the original mythological plot, added and deleted some original archetypal characters, and endowed the characters with new personality factors, thus making the tragedy not only have the lofty feeling inherited from ancient times, but also contain the psychological factors of contemporary human society, thus making the tragedy more valuable in expressing human nature. Feider is such a typical example.
Comparing Faidel with his mythological prototype, we can easily find three deviations: the absence of Avelot Dieter, the replacement of Artemis, the goddess of hunting, and the deterioration of Faidel's suicide.
In the mythological prototype, the tragedy is manipulated by the goddess of love, because she is dissatisfied with Hippolytus' contempt for her. She controlled Faidel with passion, causing great damage. In Fadel, Racine does not seem to deny the existence and influence of the god of love. The heroine in the play repeatedly declared: "The gods in the sky can testify for me. They ignited my desire and made my blood boil. In order to win this cruel glory, they will not hesitate to seduce a cowardly soul. " She accused Cupid of saying, "Cunning Venus! My heart is a mess! You are really cruel and special. " However, Venus, the goddess of love in Faidel's works, is fundamentally different from Avelot Dieter, the goddess of love in the mythological prototype. In Faidel, the goddess of love no longer appears as a concrete body, nor is she a concrete figure in the tragedy. She is only combined with the individual subject as a universal force, and the sacred factor, namely love or lust, has become a certain spirit and soul of the individual subject and an inherent internal factor of the individual character itself. Feider put her lust at the mercy of the goddess of love because she could not control her incest and impure lust excuse because of the influence of myths and traditional factors.
Therefore, the connotation of tragedy in Faidel has shifted, and its tragedy is not caused by God's revenge, but by the passion of incest. This incestuous passion is a destructive force beyond human control, so in Faidel's subconscious, she naturally attributed this power to the name of the loving God. In this way, Fadel has become a living social person tortured by lust, and is no longer a terrible tool used by God for revenge. Love or lust is no longer a sacred element, but an inherent factor of human beings.
Another goddess, Al themis, also disappeared in Racine's plays. In the mythological prototype, she is the object pursued by Hippolytus, and her disappearance represents the disappearance of Hippolytus' spiritual pursuit. In fact, Hippolytus' spiritual pursuit only changed, because she was replaced by another real-life woman, Alicia, in Faidel. In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, themis was the hunting god, the moon god and the virgin god. Her image is a young Huntress, dressed in hunting clothes and holding an quiver, so she symbolizes the power of purity, courage and wildness. In the myth of Hippolytus, after he learned to hunt, he chased wild animals in the forest with the god of hunting all day. Because of this pursuit, he even laughed at Avelot Dieter and despised love. In him, there is a heroic complex in the mythical era. What he worships and pursues is wild and brave power, not love, and he is not dominated by lust. In the tragedy Faidel, Hippolytus' pure infidelity is subverted. Although he pursues achievement like his father and has a cold personality, he has fallen in love with Alicia, his family feud sister, and he has been suffering from this inappropriate erotic relationship. In the process of changing the image of the hunting goddess, Hippolytus' personality structure has also changed. Because Alicia caused Faidel's jealousy, Hippolytus's tragedy finally happened.
In the mythical prototype, Feider committed suicide in shame, leaving a suicide note to frame Hippolytus for misconduct; In Faidel, Faidel first framed Hippolytus, then drank Medea poison in regret and confessed the truth before he died. In the analysis of framing and suicide, it is not difficult to find that Feider, as a mythical prototype, was directly dominated by lust. After being rejected and humiliated, he took destructive actions and died with the object of lust, full of wildness; In Racine's tragedy, Fadel is not only dominated by fiery lust, but also restricted by sexual factors. Reason made her think about things other than desire. She killed Hippolytus for her own benefit, because she was afraid that Hippolytus would tell theseus about her impurity. In order to maintain her reputation and status, she chose to strike first. Her later suicide was due to rational repentance. Before her death, she cleared Hippolytus' grievances and was forgiven.
In the process of recasting the mythological prototype, Racine injected more human factors into his tragedy, thus subverting the divinity and making his works have new humanistic connotations.