Passion and Reasoning

Paper Summary:

Both "Tartuffe" by Jean Baptiste Moliere and "Phaedra" by Jean Racine are plays about passion and the momentary defeat of reason. The paper explores these themes in both plays. It shows that "Tartuffe" is as much a tale of hypocrisy as of passion and a suspension of reason and that "Phaedra" is about a powerful and passionate queen who is mocked by the object of her passion, Hippolytus, her stepson. The paper also uses Saint Thomas of Aquina's "Summa Theologica" for his views on reason.

From the Paper:

"Although Tartuffe appears to be an extreme case of irascibleness, his hypocrisy must be his perceived "proper" strategy to survive. Reason is entirely absent in his life, which leads to the inference that his life experiences may have completely eliminated its inherent power in Tartuffe. But in Orgon, the loss of reason is temporary and condition by the presence of the light of truth and reason, which his wife Elmire brings back to him. Just as enormously erratic as Tartuffe is Phaedra, whose fear of age and perceived loss of attractiveness, lead her to crave for Hippolytus. She also suffers a blackout of reason. Looking closely, it is a resistance of death in aging that conditions this fear. And Hippolytus' youth, as well as his challenging improbability as a pursuit, makes him seem like the solution to Phaedra's problems with mortality. She has yet to discover that physical life is not the only, or the better, kind of life there is. But she loses the chance and the time to discover the true answer and solution by destroying herself, finding no more reason to live."

More papers on Passion and Reasoning:

• Essay # 46872 : "Reason and Passion"
• Book Review # 95035 : "Caryle Murphy's "Passion for Islam"
• Analytical Essay # 16614 : "Freud and Nietzsche: Super-egos and Idols"

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