Everything about Jean Racine totally explained
Jean Racine (French ) (
December 22,
1639 –
April 21,
1699) was a
French dramatist, one of the "big three" of 17th century
France (along with
Molière and
Corneille), and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a
tragedian, though he did write one
comedy.
Life
Born in
La Ferté-Milon (
Aisne) on
December 22,
1639, Racine was orphaned at the age of three or four and received a classical education courtesy of his grandmother, Marie des Moulins. He was a graduate of
Port-Royal, a religious institution which would greatly influence other contemporary figures including
Blaise Pascal. Port-Royal was run by followers of the
Jansenist religious reform movement, which was deemed subversive by the
Catholic French government. Racine's interactions with the Jansenists in his years at this academy would have great influence over him for the rest of his life. At Port-Royal, he excelled in his studies of the
Classics and the themes of
Greek and
Roman mythology would play large roles in his future works.
He was expected to study law at the College of Harcourt, but instead found himself drawn to a more artistic lifestyle. Experimenting with poetry yielded high praise from France's greatest literary critic,
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux with whom Racine would later become great friends (Boileau would often claim that he was behind the budding poet's work). He eventually took up residence in Paris where he became involved in theatrical circles.
His first play,
Amasie, never reached the stage. On
June 20,
1664, Racine's tragedy
La Thébaïde ou les frères ennemis (
The Thebaide or the Enemy Brothers) was produced by Molière's troupe at the Palais-Royal Theatre. The next year, Molière also put on Racine's second play, "
Alexandre Le Grand". However, this play garnered such good feedback from the public that Racine secretly negotiated with a rival play company, the Hôtel de Bourgogne, to perform the play since they'd a better reputation for performing tragedies. Thus,
Alexandre premiered for the second time, by a different acting troupe, 11 days after its first showing. Molière could never forgive Racine for his betrayal, and Racine simply widened the rift between him and his former friend by seducing Molière's leading actress, Thérèse du Parc, into becoming his companion both professionally and personally. From this point on, all of Racine's secular plays were performed by the Hôtel de Bourgogne troupe.
Though both
La Thébaide (1664) and its successor,
Alexandre (1665), had classical themes, Racine was already entering into controversy and forced to field accusations that he was polluting the minds of his audiences. He broke all ties with Port-Royal, and proceeded with
Andromaque (1667), which told the story of
Andromache, widow of
Hector, and her fate following the
Trojan War. He was by now acquiring many rivals, including
Pierre Corneille and his brother,
Thomas Corneille. Tragedians often competed with alternative versions of the same plot: for example,
Michel le Clerc produced an
Iphigénie in the same year as Racine (1674), and
Jacques Pradon also wrote a play about
Phèdre (1677). The success of Pradon's work (the result of the activities of a
claque) was one of the events which caused Racine to renounce his work as a dramatist at that time, even though his career up to this point was so successful that he was the first French author to live almost entirely on the money he earned from his writings. Others, including the historian
W.H. Lewis, attribute his retirement from the theater to qualms of conscience.
However, one major incident which seems to have contributed to Racine's departure from public life was his implication in a court scandal of 1679. He got married at about this time to the pious Catherine de Romanet, and his religious beliefs and devotion to the
Jansenist sect were revived. He and his wife eventually had two sons and five daughters. Around the time of his marriage and departure from the theater, Racine accepted a position as a royal historiographer in the court of King Louis XIV, alongside his friend
Boileau. He kept this position in spite of the minor scandals he was involved in. In 1672 he was elected to the Académie française, eventually gaining much power over this organization. Two years later he was bestowed the title of "treasurer of France," and he was later distinguished as an "ordinary gentleman of the king" (1690) and then as a secretary of the king (1696). Because of his flourishing career in the court, Louis XIV provided for his widow and children after his death. When at last he returned to the theatre, it was at the request of
Madame de Maintenon, morganatic second wife of King
Louis XIV, with the moral fables,
Esther (1689) and
Athalie (1691), both of which were based on
Old Testament stories and intended for performance by the pupils of the school of
Saint-Cyr.
Jean Racine died in
1699 from cancer of the liver. He requested to be buried in Port-Royal, but after Louis XIV had this site razed in 1710, his remains were moved to the
St. Etienne-du-Mont church in
Paris.
Style
The quality of Racine's poetry is perhaps his greatest contribution to
French literature. His use of the
alexandrine poetic line is considered exceptional in its harmony, simplicity and elegance.
Racine's work faced many criticisms from his contemporaries. One was the lack of historic veracity in plays such as
Britannicus (1668) and
Mithridate (1673). Racine was quick to point out that his greatest critics- his rival dramatists- were among the biggest offenders in this respect. Another major criticism levelled at him was the lack of incident in his tragedy,
Bérénice (1670). Racine's response was that the greatest tragedy doesn't necessarily consist in bloodshed and death.
Criticism
As with any contributor to the Western Canon, Racine has been subjected to many generations of literary criticism. His works have evoked in audiences and critics a wide range of responses, ranging from reverence to revulsion. In his book
Racine: A Study, Philip Butler of the University of Wisconsin broke the main criticisms of Racine down by century to best portray the almost constantly shifting perception of the playwright and his works.
17th century
In his own time, Racine found himself compared constantly with his contemporaries, especially the great
Pierre Corneille. In his own plays, Racine sought to abandon the ornate and almost otherworldly intricacy that Corneille so favored. Audiences and critics were divided over the worth of Racine as an up and coming playwright. Audiences admired his return to simplicity and their ability to relate to his more human characters, while critics insisted on judging him according to the traditional standards of
Aristotle and his Italian commentators from which he tended to stray. Attitudes shifted, however, as Racine began to eclipse Corneille. In
1674 the highly respected poet and critic
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (also known simply as "
Boileau") published his
Art Poétique which deemed Racine's model of tragedy superior to that of Corneille. This erased all doubts as to Racine's abilities as a dramatist and established him as one of the period's great literary minds.
18th century
Butler describes this period as Racine's "apotheosis," his highest point of admiration. Racine's ascent to literary fame coincided with other prodigious cultural and political events in French history. This period saw the rise of literary giants like
Molière,
Jean de La Fontaine,
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, and
François de La Rochefoucauld as well as
Louis Le Vau's historic expansion of the
Palace of Versailles,
Jean-Baptiste Lully's revolution in
Baroque music, and most importantly, the ascension of
Louis XIV to the throne of France.
Under Louis XIV's revolutionary reign, France rose up from a long period of civil discord (see the
Fronde, or 'Slingshot Rebellion') to new heights of international prominence. Political achievement coincided with cultural and gave birth to an evolution of France's national identity, known as
l'esprit français. This new self perception acknowledged the superiority of all things French; the French believed France was home to the greatest king, the greatest armies, the greatest people, and, subsequently, the greatest culture. In this new national mindset, Racine and his work were practically deified, established as the perfect model of dramatic tragedy by which all other plays would be judged. Butler blames the consequential "withering" of French drama on Racine's idolized image, saying that such rigid adherence to one model eventually made all new French drama a stale imitation.
19th century
The French installation of Racine into the dramatic and literary pantheon evoked harsh criticism from many sources who argued against his 'perfection.' Germans like
Friedrich Schiller and
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe dismissed Racine as
hõfliches Drama, or "courtly drama" too restricted by the etiquette and conventions of a royal court for the true expression of human passion. French critics, too, revolted. Racine came to be dismissed as merely "an historical document" that painted a picture only of 17th century French society and nothing else; there could be nothing new to say about him. However, as writers like
Charles Baudelaire and
Gustave Flaubert came onto the scene to soundly shake the foundations of
French literature, conservative readers retreated to Racine for the nostalgia of his simplicity.
As Racine returned to prominence at home, his critics abroad remained hostile due mainly, Butler argues, to
Francophobia. The British were especially damning, preferring
Shakespeare and
Sir Walter Scott to Racine, whom they dismissed as "didactic" and "commonplace." This didn't trouble the French, however, as "Racine,
La Fontaine, or generally speaking the
chefs-d'œuvre de l'esprit humain couldn't be understood by foreigners."
20th century
The 20th century saw a renewed effort to rescue Racine and his works from the chiefly historical perspective to which he'd been consigned. Critics called attention to the fact that plays such as [Phèdre] could be interpreted as realist drama, containing characters that were universal and that could appear in any time period. Other critics cast new light upon the underlying themes of violence and scandal that seem to pervade the plays, creating a new angle from which they could be examined. In general, people agreed that Racine would only be fully understood when removed from the context of the 18th century.
21st century
At present, Racine is still widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. His work is still widely read and frequently performed.
Dramatic works
Trivia
Marcel Proust developed a fondness for Racine at an early age, "whom he considered a brother and someone very much like himself..." —
Marcel Proust: A Life, by
Jean-Yves Tadié, 1996.
A.S. Byatt's tetralogy (
The Virgin in the Garden 1978, Still Life 1985, Babel Tower 1997 and A Whistling Woman 2002) tell the story of Frederica Potter an English young woman in the early 1950s (when she's first introduced) who is very appreciative of Racine specifically
Phedre.
Further Information
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