JEAN RACINE: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Jean Racine (1639-1699) was one of the most important French writers and historiographers of the 17th century. In addition, he was recognized for his impeccable mastery of traditional poetry with touches of tragedy in France.

The numerous plays that he wrote achieved resounding success in the theater, to the point that they became key pieces for the development of the expression of art. With this, the writer managed to become the first playwright to make a living from the money raised from the sale of his work.

By nach einem Gemälde von E. Hader 1890 herausgegeben von Sophus Williams Verlag Leipziger Str. 29 Berlin. (Carte de Visite - Photo 6.0 x 8.5 cm.), Via Wikimedia Commons

The attention to every detail of his works, the text, the expressiveness of the actors who represented his works and the decoration of the stage, were attributes that distinguished him from the rest of the playwrights of the time and led him to success.

References

Early years

Jean Baptiste Racine was born on December 22, 1639 in La Ferté-Milon, France. He was the son of a well-positioned family economically. His mother died when he was 13 months old and his father died two years after his wife, leaving him an orphan at four years of age.

Faced with this situation, Racine was left in charge of her maternal grandparents. His grandmother, Marie des Moulins, was left a widow, so she decided to take her grandson to a convent where he managed to complete his academic training in 1646. Such a school allowed Racine to receive education from a strong religious tendency.

The classics of Greek and Latin literature were a fundamental part of the studies he carried out with intellectuals of the time. On the other hand, the institution in which he studied was strongly influenced by the theological movement known as Jansenism, which emphasized the sins of the human being.

Although he was sent by the Jansenists to Paris to study law at the College of Harcourt at the age of 18, Racine's interest in art led him to take another direction in his education.

The poetry

Jean Racine's interest in the art of poetry led him to experiment with the literary genre. The result of his practices received good reviews from Nicolas Boileau, one of France's most important poetry critics. Soon after, poetry brought the two French together and made them great friends.

Two years later, in 1659, he composed a praise sonnet that celebrated the conclusion of the peace treaty with Spain, made by Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Prime Minister of the country.

After several attempts to achieve recognition in the genre of poetry, Jean Racine chose to test his performance as a playwright in Paris. This meant the separation of French from its Jansenist teachers, who rejected the theater on the grounds that it promoted an illusion.

For at least the next ten years, Racine produced a series of works that were highly successful with the public and well received by critics.

His good performance as a playwright made him the first French author who could live almost entirely on the money raised by his works, which caused him to retire from the world of theater.

Marriage

In the year 1679, Jean Racine married Catherine de Romanet, a pious and intellectual, faithful to the Jansenist religion. The closeness of women to doctrine made the playwright move further away from his career, thus strengthening the bond he had with religion.

The couple had seven children: five girls and two boys. The separation of dramaturgy caused Racine to dedicate himself to royal historiography in the company of Nicolas Boileau, who came to applaud the Recine's work as a playwright.

The new position was exercised in the court of King Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great. Despite having abandoned dramaturgy, he did not distance himself from writing because part of his work was based on reviewing the king's military campaigns in prose.

A few years later, Racine returned to the world of poetry after the wife of the king for whom he worked, Madame de Maintenon, asked him to return to the theater with two works of a religious nature.

Other charges

Another of the activities that Racine developed was being part of the French Academy, an institution that dealt with all matters related to the French language.

The position was taken up by Racine in 1672. In 1674 he was appointed treasurer of France and in 1690 he obtained the position of knight of the king.

Death

On April 21, 1699, at the age of 60, Jean Bapiste Racine passed away after suffering from liver cancer. To fulfill his last wishes, he was buried in Port-Royal, the abbey located in the southeast of Paris where his grandmother took him when the playwright's mother died.

Despite his request, in 1710 the playwright's remains were transferred to the Saint Étienne du Mont church, also in Paris, after troops of the king for whom he worked razed the place where he had requested that his remains rest.

Plays

Amasie

Amesie was the playwright's first play; however, it was not as successful as it hoped. The playwright offered the text to numerous companies, but it was not accepted. This situation was not a determining factor for him to move away from poetry.

It is considered that the little receptivity that Amasie had caused it to disappear with the passage of time, so that today there is little documentation on the theatrical piece.

The Brotherhood

Recognized as Racine's first play to be well received by the public, The Brotherhood was published in 1664 when the playwright was 25 years old. It featured the story of two twin brothers who fight to the death to defend their interests.

The play, which has five acts to develop the story in its entirety, was presented for the first time at the Royal Palace, a complex that has galleries and theaters in Paris.

Alexander the great

Following the success of The Brotherhood, Racine wrote Alexander the Great: A Tragedy written in 1665 that addressed the love story between Alexander the Great and Princess Cleofile. The play was successful and was presented numerous times at the Hotel de Bourgogne, Paris.

Andromache

After definitively separating himself from the Jansenist religion, Jean Racine wrote Andromache in 1667. This work dealt with how four characters managed between madness and unrequited love.

The separation from religion that was part of his life made the piece address novel themes for the time, where human vices were represented by its characters. The piece was the first in which the tragedy was exposed to the public.

The play was a resounding success, to the point that Racine became one of the main competences of Pierre Corneille, another important playwright of the time.

British

Political themes shrouded in tragic stories took place among Racine's writings with Británico. Published in 1669, when the playwright was 31 years old, its plot revolves around the Roman Emperor Nero.

The presence of a ballet performance in the middle of the play and the reflection with which the characters departed from the reality in which they live, turned Británico into an innovative piece.

Berenice

Written in 1670, it was a five-act play that was inspired by a phrase from a Roman historian and biographer who lived in 70 AD. Like Andromache, Berenice addressed the love between two people and the betrayal of one of them towards the other.

The competition between Jean Racine and Pierre Corneille was such that Corneille came to present a work with a similar plot shortly after the presentation of Berenice.

Bayezid

Like Berenice, Bayaceto was a play that featured five acts. In it, a real-life event that occurred in the Ottoman Empire in 1630 was related.

The work was written and published in 1672. Although it was well received by the public at the time of its presentation, Bayezid's success did not last over time: it is one of Jean Racine's works that is least interpreted. today.

Phaedra

One of the many tragedies written by the playwright, Phaedra was interpreted and published in 1677. It is inspired by one of the works of Euripides, one of the most important Greek poets, and tells the story of Phaedra, a military princess of the Greek mythology.

Esther and Athaliah

They were the last two tragedies that Racine wrote. Its preparation was at the request of the wife of King Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon.

Esther had three songs and was composed for some students; Athaliah was written after the success of Esther and addressed the sense of ethics and the importance of religion for the human being.

References

1. Jean Racine: French Dramatist, Encyclopedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from com
2. Jean Racine, English Wikipedia, (nd). Taken from en.wikipedia.org
3. Jean Racine, Biographies and Lives, (nd). Taken from biografiasyvidas.com Jean Racine, Imagination, (nd). Taken from imagi-nation.com
4. Jean Baptiste Racine Facts, Your Dictionary Biography, (nd). Taken from biography.yourdictionary.com
5. Bajazet, Encyclopedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
6. Phèdre, Encyclopedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from britannica.com