Thinking About Your Thinking

Metacognitive Reading Worksheet

Phaedra by Jean Racine — Act II

NAME

DATE

A DAY

B DAY

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BEFORE READING: Preparing My Mind

1. In Act 1 you watched two confessions — each one pushed out of a speaker by a trusted confidant in private. In Act 2, three characters will speak about love this time, but the listener is no longer a confidant. The listener is the person they love. Before you read: what changes when you have to declare a feeling directly to the person who caused it? What gets harder? What might tempt the speaker to lie, soften, or hide behind metaphor?

2. We meet Aricia properly for the first time in this Act. She is the last survivor of a royal family Theseus destroyed; he has kept her unmarried so her line will end with her. Without reading ahead: what would such a person want, and what would she fear? Note one prediction you can test as you read.

DURING READING: Monitoring My Understanding

Comprehension Check-In: Rate your understanding of each section as you read (1 = confused, 5 = clear).

Section	1	2	3	4	5
Scene 1 — Aricia and Ismene; Aricia learns Hippolytus has asked to see her, and reveals her own feelings for him
Scene 2 — Hippolytus comes to Aricia, declares Athens hers, and confesses his love for her
Scene 3 — Theramenes interrupts: Phaedra is on her way and asks to see Hippolytus; the lovers part
Scene 4 — Hippolytus tells Theramenes to ready the ship; he wants this interview over quickly
Scene 5 (first half) — Phaedra approaches indirectly: pleads for her son, then speaks of Theseus living "in" Hippolytus
Scene 5 (second half) — Phaedra confesses openly; demands Hippolytus kill her with his sword; Oenone hurries her away
Scene 6 — Hippolytus is left shaken; Theramenes brings news of Athens's vote and a rumour Theseus may live

Double-Entry Journal: Record a passage that struck you and explain your thinking.

Passage from the Text (with line or scene number)	My Thinking: Why did this passage stand out to me?

Speaking the Forbidden: Three Characters Confess

Three characters confess a love they are not allowed to have. Track how each one names, blames, and avoids.

The Forbidden Confession	Aricia (Scene 1)	Hippolytus (Scene 2)	Phaedra (Scene 5)
NAME. What word does the speaker use for the feeling? (love? pride? a wound? madness? a god?)
BLAME / CREDIT. Whom or what does the speaker hold responsible for the feeling — themselves, the beloved, fate, the gods?
AVOID. What is the speaker not saying about themselves? What does this framing protect them from admitting?

AFTER READING: Reflecting on My Understanding

3. In Act 1, Hippolytus prided himself on being the one man immune to love — and even mocked his father's many affairs. In Act 2 he confesses to Aricia that he is now exactly what he used to scorn. How does he describe this contradiction to himself? When in your own life have you held a strong opinion about something — and then found yourself doing the very thing you used to criticise? What was it like, on the inside, to notice that?

4. Phaedra confesses her love twice in this play: once to Oenone in Act 1, and now to Hippolytus himself in Act 2. Compare the two confessions. What changes about how she speaks when the listener is the beloved rather than the confidant? What becomes harder to say? What becomes easier? Why might that be?

5. Decision Point. Act 2 is full of moments where a small choice could have changed everything: Aricia could have refused to receive Hippolytus; Hippolytus could have refused to receive Phaedra; Phaedra could have stopped at her first sentence; Hippolytus could have spoken instead of fleeing in silence. Choose one moment. Mark it (scene and roughly the line). Name the choice the character actually made. Then describe the alternative path — and explain why this character, being who they are, could not take it.

6. Thinking about your thinking: Phaedra's confession in Scene 5 is famous partly because she begins by talking about Theseus and somehow ends declaring her love for Hippolytus — without ever quite saying his name. As a reader, where did you first realise what she was actually saying? Mark the line. What signals tipped you off (a pronoun? a tense? an image?), and what does that tell you about how Racine writes a confession that the speaker is trying not to make? What strategy will you carry into Act 3 to read passages where a character's words and meaning are pulling in opposite directions?

Phaedra Unit — Metacognitive Reading Practice Act II Monitor. Question. Clarify. Connect.