Phaedra's predicaments based on her lamentations fall into three categories: passion, unrequited love and guilt. The queen of Athens has a passionate nature, which her husband was not able to satiate. It caused her eyes and mind to wander and fall on young Hippolytus, the son of her husband. The emotional void that Phaedra's husband was unable to fill caused the queen to fall madly in love with Hippolytus.
Knowing her station and the consequence of her feelings, Phaedra struggled mightily to overcome her fatal attraction towards Hippolytus. At this point, passion fought with guilt.She even blamed the goddess Venus for making her burn with passion for a man other than her husband. Tried as she might, Phaedra was unable to fight her overwhelming love for Hippolytus.
It caused her grief. Her grief was for inability to quench her longing for Hippolytus while at the same time her grief was caused by the fact that she couldn't have him. When rumors reached her that her husband could be dead, Phaedra acted on the advice given by Oenone and revealed his love to Hippolytus in person, resulting to his surprise and rejection of her feelings.Phaedra was able to express her feelings but it became unrequited.
The time could have been right for the queen to marry the throne's successor but she was scorned. But her scorn laid dormant since she didn't know yet of Hippolytus' love for Aricia. When it turned out that Theseus, Phaedra's husband is alive, she again acted on a bad advice from Oenone, and slandered Hippolytus in order to anticipate his likely confession to his father. But Hippolytus chose to be silent about Phaedra's declaration. Theseus was enraged and asked the god Neptune to punish his son.
Phaedra could have taken back her lie because of guilt but when she learned that Hippolytus loved another woman, her scorned self gave way to intense jealousy and made her continue with the deception. Hippolytus left the palace but met with an accident that killed him. Phaedra, overcame with guilt for her passion and her deception, decided to admit her lie to Theseus. During her confession Phaedra had already consumed a poison. In the end, passion, scorn and guilt had caused a tragic ending to the lives of three people in this play.
