Jean-Batiste Rasine French playwright, poet, representative of classicism. Date of Birth: 21.12.1639 Country: France

Biography of Jean-Baptiste Racine

Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French playwright, poet, and representative of classicism. Born into a family of a local tax official, he was baptized on December 22, 1639. His mother died in 1641 while giving birth to his sister Marie. His father remarried, but died at the age of twenty-eight. The children were taken in by their grandmother. At the age of nine, Racine became a student at a school in Beauvais, which was affiliated with Port-Royal. In 1655, he was accepted as a student at the abbey itself. The three years he spent there had a decisive influence on his literary development. He studied under four outstanding philologists and classicists of the time and became an excellent Hellenist under their guidance. The sensitive youth also experienced the direct impact of the powerful and somber Jansenist movement. The conflict between Jansenism and his lifelong love for classical literature became a source of inspiration for Racine and determined the tone of his works.

After completing his education at the Collège d'Arcueil in Paris, Racine settled with his cousin N. Vitart, who managed the estate of the Duke of Luynes, in 1660. Around this time, Racine established connections in literary circles and became acquainted with poet Jean de La Fontaine. In the same year, he wrote the poem "La Nymphe de la Seine" (The Nymph of the Seine), for which he received a pension from the king, as well as his first two plays, which were never staged or preserved. Despite not feeling called to pursue a religious career, Racine moved to his uncle, a priest in the southern town of Uzès, in 1661, in the hope of obtaining a benefice from the church that would allow him to dedicate himself entirely to literary work. However, the negotiations on this matter were unsuccessful, and in 1662 or 1663, Racine returned to Paris. His literary acquaintances expanded, and the doors to court salons opened for him.

It is believed that Racine wrote his first two surviving plays, "La Thébaïde" (The Thebaid) and "Alexandre le Grand" (Alexander the Great), on the advice of Molière, who staged them in 1664 and 1665. Racine was a haughty, irritable, and treacherous person by nature, driven by ambition. These characteristics explain both the intense hostility of his contemporaries and the fierce clashes that accompanied Racine throughout his creative life. In the two years following the production of "Alexander the Great," Racine strengthened his ties with the court, opening the way to a personal friendship with King Louis XIV and gaining the patronage of Madame de Montespan, the king's mistress. Eventually, he portrayed her as the "haughty Vashti" in his play "Esther" (1689), written after Madame de Maintenon captured the king's heart. He also persuaded his mistress, the renowned actress Thérèse Du Parc, to leave Molière's troupe and join the "Hôtel de Bourgogne" theater, where she played the lead role in "Andromaque" (1667), one of his greatest tragedies.

The originality of "Andromaque" lies in Racine's remarkable ability to portray the fierce passions that torment the human soul beneath the veneer of acquired culture. The conflict between duty and emotion is absent here. The naked clash of conflicting desires leads to an inevitable and destructive catastrophe.

Racine's only comedy, "Les Plaideurs" (The Litigants), was staged in 1668. In 1669, his tragedy "Britannicus" received moderate success. In "Andromaque," Racine first utilized a plot scheme that would become common in his later plays: A pursues B, but B loves C. A variation of this model is found in "Britannicus," where a criminal pair, Agrippina and Nero, stand opposed to an innocent pair, Junia and Britannicus. The following year, the production of "Bérénice," in which the leading role was played by Racine's new mistress, Mademoiselle de Champmeslé, became one of the greatest mysteries in literary history. It was claimed that Racine depicted in the characters of Titus and Bérénice Louis XIV and his fiancée Henrietta of England, who apparently gave Racine and Corneille the idea to write plays on the same subject. A more credible version suggests that the love affair between Titus and Bérénice reflected Louis' brief but passionate romance with Marie Mancini, Cardinal Mazarin's niece, whom Louis wanted to put on the throne. The version of a rivalry between the two playwrights is also disputed.

Racine's subsequent tragedies, "Bajazet" (1672), "Mithridate" (1673), "Iphigénie" (1674), and "Phèdre" (1677), elevated him to the peak of his dramatic career. "Phèdre" is considered the pinnacle of Racine's dramaturgy. It surpasses all his other plays in the beauty of its verse and the profound insight into the depths of the human soul. Like before, there is no conflict between rational principles and heartfelt inclinations. Phaedra is portrayed as a highly sensual woman, but her love for Hippolytus is tainted by her awareness of her own sinfulness. The production of "Phèdre" became a turning point in Racine's creative life. His enemies, led by the Duchess de Bouillon, who saw in Phaedra's "incestuous" passion for her stepson a hint at the depraved morals of their own circle, made every effort to sabotage the play. The secondary playwright Pradon was commissioned to write a tragedy on the same subject, and the competing play was staged simultaneously with Racine's "Phèdre."

Unexpectedly, Racine refused to participate in the ensuing fierce debate. After marrying the pious and domestic Catherine de Romanet, who bore him seven children, Racine assumed the position of royal historiographer alongside N. Boileau. His only plays during this period were "Esther" and "Athalie," written at the request of Madame de Maintenon and performed in 1689 and 1691 by students of the school she founded in Saint-Cyr. Racine died on April 21, 1699. It was claimed that Corneille said on the evening of the first performance of "Britannicus" that Racine paid too much attention to the weaknesses of human nature. These words reveal the significance of Racine's innovations and the reason for the fierce rivalry between the playwrights that divided the 17th century into two camps. Unlike their contemporaries, we understand that both playwrights' works reflect timeless aspects of human nature. Corneille, being a singer of the heroic, portrayed the conflict between duty and emotion in his best plays. The theme of almost all of Racine's great tragedies is blind passion that sweeps away any moral barriers and leads to inevitable catastrophe. Corneille's characters emerge from the conflict renewed and purified, while Racine's characters suffer complete ruin. The dagger or poison that ends their earthly existence physically is a consequence of the psychological devastation that has already taken place.