FAIDRINA VZBURA
PHAEDRA'S REVOLT

Summary/Abstract: This article brings an interpretation of Enquist’s drama For Phaedra from a political and social point of view. It compares it to the previous dramas based on the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus written by Euripides, Seneca, Racine, Zola and Kane. It argues that having lost social and internal values, characters of the drama feel useless, which leads to a revolt against the system. For a better understanding of the main thesis of the article the author relies on psychoanalytical explanations which Enquist used in his comments and remarks on the drama. The author focuses on the evolution and changes in society, especially increasing material wealth that leads to the alienation of man, which allowed a critical application of the myth onto our society and its problems. The drama displays Enquist’s social democratic political attitudes. The characters are mirrored in each other with the only exception: the character of Theseus represents a man and politician in one person who has abused his power. He changes history to what he wants it to be, and he considers his wife and the rest of the family as his property, not as human beings. Phaedra tries to seduce her son-in-law Hippolytus to revenge for Theseus’s behaviour. When Hippolytus dies and she commits suicide, the character of a cleaner appears. Theramenes and Aricia follow him to change the unjust political system.

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