‘Amy, qu’oses-tu dire?’ Friendship, Support and Challenge in Racinian Tragedy

Abstract Analyses of the roles of Pylade, Antiochus and Théramène suggest that Racine, alongside his exploration of erotic love, has insight into the workings of friendship in the face of impending catastrophe. Friends are asked to lend support to the protagonists of tragedy, where their more helpful and constructive response might be to challenge the protagonists’ self-image and correct their flawed decision-making processes. All attempts which the friends make to save the protagonists from themselves, however, seem doomed to failure in the bleak Racinian universe, as he demonstrates not only the defeat of reason by passion, but the defeat of friendship by self-centred desire.