SOURCE: Desnain, Véronique. “Les Faux Miroirs: The Good Woman/Bad Woman Dichotomy in Racine's Tragedies.” Modern Language Review 96, no. 1 (January 2001): 38-46.

In the following essay, Desnain contends that Racine's plays clearly portray the importance of gender roles and promote certain rules of behavior for women, arguing too that the playwright's misogynistic depiction of women often uses the “virgin/whore” stereotype.

To ascribe didactic intentions to a dramatist such as Racine is always dangerous: although he claims such a purpose in the ‘Préface’ to Phèdre, for example, his motivations are open to question: the ‘Préface’ clearly states his desire to ‘réconcilier la tragédie avec quantité de personnes célèbres par leur piété et par leur doctrine, qui l'ont condannée ces derniers temps.’ The Querelle des Imaginaires is undoubtedly still fresh in his mind and his moral stance could be seen...