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Distinguishing the Tragic Hero "Not recognizing her beloved, she both looks at him and asks where he may be. At last she knows too well what's lying there; she lifts to the Gods a sad, accusing stare; then, moaning, cold, and all but dead, the sweet maid drops unconscious at her lover's feet" (p. 401). From this phrase alone, it is obvious that Jean Racine's Phaedra (1677) is a tragic play, featuring a tragic hero. The tragic …

…Hippolytus in that her error of judgment was the catalyst in both Theseus' and Hippolytus' harmatias. Phaedra's accusation of Hippolytus caused his death and Oenone's suicide. As a result of her own actions, Phaedra committed suicide, "I drank to give my burning veins some peace, a poison which Medea brought to Greece." (p. 402). Source: Racine, J. (1677). Phaedra. In S. Lawall (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of World Literature. New York: Norton & Company. By: Deborah Cole