From the times of Aristotle to modern day Boal people have tried to come up with a definition of tragedy that encompasses all of the works they feel to be tragedies. However, there are always a few exceptions to their rules that make their thesis insubstantial. Those who define tragedies all have different elements that they say are necessary in classifying something as a tragedy. Unfortunately for us, no one definition has ever been settled upon that everyone agrees with. The one factor that does seem to be present in every interpretation of what is necessary in a tragedy is the catharsis that is brought up in the viewer. Without that emotional reaction, whether of pity, empathy, sympathy, or perturbation, a work never seems to be classified as a tragedy. O’Neill wrote Desire Under the Elms borrowing themes from the myths of Phaedra, Medea, and Oedipus. He was trying to create a Greek tragedy in the setting of his time. Racine wrote Phedre in classic Greek style, attempting to create a Greek tragedy that had been written in the modern day. Both of these plays sought to entwine the modern world with Greek tragedies. While they each have distinctly different ways of accomplishing their goal of writing a modern Greek tragedy, they are both tragedies in their own way and bring about the similar effect of Catharsis.Jean Racine wrote Phedre based on the Greek myth of queen Phaedra, wife of Theseus, who lusted after her stepson and, when he rejected her love, accused him of raping her and hung herself. Because of her accusation Theseus cursed his son which resulted in his death. While Racine sets the play in Troezen and kept it in its original era, he changed the myth so that it was Oenone, the nurse, and not Phedre that told king Theseus his son had made advances towards Phedre. By doing this, Racine made Phedre a more pitiable character with whom the audience is more capable of sympathizing. She is seen more as a incap...
