Bérénice, l’amour en fuite

Abstract

Bérénice has sometimes been considered the most Cornelian of Racine's plays: those who support this interpretation believe that Titus and Berenice agree to renounce their passion in the name of values they deem superior to love. Such a reading clears Bérénice, a non-bloody play, of its tragic component. I offer another hypothesis here: the heroes’ final separation can be seen as the funeral coronation of a courteous love passion that only finds its full realization in its own negation. It is the internal logic of his love which, after having set Titus on the path of virtue, compels him, in the name of that same virtue, to drive out the queen whom he remains truly more in love with than ever. Racinian love, even and especially in Berenice, is a dead end. The absurdity of the laws to which Titus is forced to submit reinforces the tragic quality of this play: the emperor expels Berenice in the name of a hatred of kings to which the Romans are certainly viscerally attached, but which has lost all meaning since Rome ceased to be a Republic and became the disguised monarchy known as the Empire. Through his depiction of love, as well as through the image he gives of a hypocritical Rome, Racine shows his faithfulness to the spirit of Port-Royal and Augustinism, while achieving the tour de force of seducing the mondain public eager for galanterie.

Keywords

• Berenice
• Titus
• tragedy
• Racine
• Port-Royal
• politics