Phaedra Lesson Plan

Who Holds the Power?

Kind of Activity:

Individual Writing

Objective:

Students will reflect on and measure Hippolytus’s justification for his hatred of women

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3

Structure:

Ask students to consider Hippolytus's claim that women are to blame for the crimes of history because they manipulate the men in power to do what they want. Instruct them to consider the fate of the women to whom the play alludes in contrast to the men, and ask themselves who holds the power. They should remember Phaedra's family: her mother, who schemed to sleep with a bull; her sister, who was...