Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a famous Roman
philosopher, statesman, thinker, writer and above all, the father of Latin
revenge tragedy, had an excellent power of characterization which was depicted
in his time winning plays. The character, the role and function of the Nurse of
in Phaedra
bears the testimony of his profound knowledge and understanding in portraying
female character. We need a critical observation and detail interpretation of
the role, function, attitude and mentality of the Nurse to know her character
and significance in the play.
In the tragic play Phaedra,
Seneca has depicted the character of Nurse with great importance and
significance that plays a vital role on the life of Phaedra, the heroine, and
in the action of the play. The Nurse without any proper name appears with
Phaedra in the very first Act of the play. She is older, wiser and more
experienced than Phaedra. She is very much careful, trustworthy, sincere and
dutiful and sympathetic to her mistress.
At the very beginning, we
find the Nurse to play the role of a moral teacher who tries her best to pacify
Phaedra’s destructive sexual passion for her stepson Hippolytus that burns her heart
like Etna and kills her peace of mind. As an adviser she rightly guides:
“Cleanse
your pure heart at once of such vile thoughts;
Smoother the flame and give no
countenance
To vile hopes”.
The Nurse plays her role as
a practical and realistic woman who knows the ins and outs of the passion of
love and its nature and its violent effect on human mind and life. She thus
encourages her mistress to guard herself against such passion:
“Stand up to Love and rout him
At the first assault, that is the surest way
To win without a fall”.
No comments:
Post a Comment