In the play Hippolytus, Euripides depicts the characters realistically by displaying their warlike emotions following dramatic events, as well as their deception in achieving their goals. A prime example of such tactics is the character Phaedra, who is content to suffer unto death because of the shame of her forbidden desires for her stepson. However, when the nurse reveals her secret, Phaedra hatches a plan to ruin her reputation and save hers. Until the creation of the letter announcing the fall of his stepson, Euripides makes the audience sympathize with Phaedra, leading us to understand his sorrow at his love-stricken heart. At first, Phèdre longs for the same nature and the same hunt that she knows Hippolyte participates in, largely because of the shared desire to be near the person one loves. Phèdre then becomes more aware of her rapture and is consumed by the shame of wanting Hippolyte. Then the audience is allowed to watch her go back and forth on whether her sinful desires are the result of the sins of the women in her family or are motivated by the goddess Cypris. Finally, Phèdre uses deception to prevent her reputation from being tarnished after her death. Therefore, Euripides uses the natural characteristics of humans—uncontrollable desire, shame, the need to find explanations, and the survival of one's good reputation—to make Phaedrus a dynamic character and arouse the audience's sympathy for Phaedrus. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay In the first act of Hippolyta, Hippolyta hunts "wild beasts with her hounds" (31) and honors the goddess Artemis with a “…a woven crown, plucked from a virgin meadow…” (32). Immediately following this scene, the audience observes Phaedra longing for a similar meadow, a place among the pines “…where dogs pursue prey, hard at the scent of spotted fawns…”, and also “…listen to them, to catch the barbed wire. dart, to place the Thessalian hunting spears near [his] golden hair, then let them fly…” (34). Phèdre's eagerness to be in such a place and participate in the same hunt as Hippolyte is an indication that she wants to be close and interact with Hippolyte because of her desire for him. Euripides presents this natural desire as his first representation of love for him, probably because it is the simplest symptom of love that many can relate to. In turn, this causes the audience to see themselves in Phaedra and feel like it could have easily been one of them struck by Aphrodite's power and uncontrollably in love with someone he shouldn't. As Phaedra comes to her senses and realizes her infatuation is gone. since she dictated his thoughts to him, she has been filled with shame on several occasions; she says, “…the tire on my head is too heavy to bear…” (34) and “Shame fills me for the words I have spoken.” Hide me then; tears flow from my eyes, and it is out of shame that I turn them away” (35). Because of his disgust for his desires, Phaedra becomes a figure of pity; she knows that her love for her stepson is false and would rather suffer and shame herself than act on it. This strong quality of choosing death over forbidden love makes Phèdre admirable in the eyes of the audience. In response to her unjust fate in the universe, Phaedra begins to imagine why she might have deserved such an ending. She explores different angles of her reasoning, and the audience sympathizes with trying to understand why something bad might happen to someone, by accessing instinct!.