Tyrants and Victims or Game Players? A Transactional Analysis Perspective on Barthes’s ‘Rapport de Force’ in Racine’s Phèdre

Abstract

This article will reveal that the tragic characters’ unconscious wants, beliefs and desires have a direct influence on their behaviour and their interactions and contribute to the unfolding of the tragic plot in Racine’s Phèdre. This work uses Eric Berne’s transactional analysis to explore the psychoanalytical dimension of Phèdre’s behaviour towards Hippolyte in order to go beyond Roland Barthes’s interpretations of this dynamic as a ‘rapport de force’. Hence, the development of the tragic action within the play and implicitly Hippolyte’s demise becomes the composite result of the characters’ unconscious needs, desires and beliefs, which influence their decisions, actions and interactions.