Phaedra and Tartuffe Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, embraces the works of ancient Greece and Roman, also neoclassical plays had many requirements in order to fall under neoclassical. Phaedra and Tartuffe both embodies this idea in their own kind of way. There always had to be Five Acts and the play was also told in French Rhyme, that’s why some of the English translations seems like it doesn’t rhyme. It has three unities, time (24 hours only), place (same place), and action (only one plot). I will go in to greater detail on how each play does keeps to these requirements. “Poetic Justice” the evil guy gets what he deserves, and the forbearances of mixing comedy and tragedy, are major contraption on these neoclassical requirements. The plays have to feel real in neoclassical plays. Phaedra and Tartuffe both have perfect examples that show off how these plays are neoclassical. Each play must have 5 acts, that all must be done in one scene. In Tartuffe it was all done in Orgon house. In Phaedra it was done all in the royal palace at Trezene. Everything must be take place in a 24 hour span, it started when Orgon was talking about marrying his daughter to Tartuffe, then he gets arrested the following day by the king. In Phaedra it all starts when Hippolytus is talking about leaving in order to search for his father and then ending when everyone is pretty much dead and when Theseus pardons Aricia and adopts her as a his daughter. These rules must be followed to an exact or the play would not be pure. There must be one plot line, in Tartuffe, he is trying to achieve the estate of Orgon by cunning and acting. In Phaedra, its passion, love, lust, and wanting what they can’t have but will do anything to achieve it. One of the most interesting things about these plays is that you are able to see parallels with other works we have read in our class. You are able to see that self-sacrifice that one makes because they feel like their sins are too much for the world. In Oedipus he takes his eyes because he feels like he committed such a great sin killing his father and laying with his mother. Then you look at Phaedra whom took her own life, because she was lusting for her step son, because of her guilt and not wanting to tell the truth she killed herself over her guilt, exactly like Oedipus did. It feels like the Jean Baptiste Racine grabs inspiration from ancient theater, that why is using Theseus and Hippolytus as his main characters. He even refers to fictional historical deeds, like how Theseus killed a Minotaur in a maze and use a ball of string to get to back to the entrance. Phaedra and Tartuffe are very interesting play, they have an identity, feeling, emotion, shocking, and feels like a tragedy/comedy. Neoclassicism felt real, like these story did happen at some point in history. If you took those 2 plays, back during the “City Dionysia” festivals, you could see the crowds would be just as enthralled in to them as the French people was. I would have loved to go back in history be someone in the audience and see how these stories would play out and how I would feel afterword. French theater knew what it wanted to be and developed a culture around it.