“BURNT TO THE BONE” WITH LOVE, DAMNATION AND SIN: PHÆDRA AS THE SWINBURNIAN “FEMME DAMNÉE”

Abstract

The Victorian poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) is famous for his uniquely “bizarre” female characters. His contemporary critics as well as many of the researchers who touched upon his work have interpreted his female characters to be “obsessive,” “masochistic,” and in some cases even “sadistic.” Phædra is one of his characters who suffered the most because of this misconception. Rarely referenced at all, she has been regarded as a one-dimensional “masochist” who lacks psychological and emotional depth and whose only driving force is her desire for death. However, a close reading of Swinburne’s short poem reveals Phædra’s innermost anxieties and places her in the narrative of the Swinburnian femme damnée inspired by Les Fleurs du Mal of the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Swinburne’s “Phædra” is remarkable in that it also serves as an exceptional representation of Sappho (c. 630 - c. 570 BC) in Victorian England. This paper highlights Swinburne’s aversion towards the Victorian mock-morality, as well as some of his life-long influences. Furthermore, this paper defines Phædra in a new light by considering the classical originals, Sappho’s and Baudelaire’s works, and even a twentieth-century retelling by the Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941).