Thinking About Your Thinking

Metacognitive Reading Worksheet

Phaedra by Jean Racine — Act IV

NAME

DATE

A DAY

B DAY

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BEFORE READING: PREPARING MY MIND

1. Act III ended with Oenone walking off-stage to tell Theseus a lie about Hippolytus. Racine then does something unusual — he does not let us watch the lie being told. Act IV opens with Theseus already convinced. Before you read: what story do you imagine Oenone tells in that off-stage gap, and what would Theseus already need to believe — about his wife, about his son, about himself — for the story to land that quickly? Sketch two or three things he must already half-believe before the curtain rises.

2. This is the act where a few sentences — spoken or unspoken — change everything. Watch for moments where someone could speak the truth and does not, and moments where someone speaks something they cannot take back. What signs in the dialogue will you look for to track these turning points: pronouns, hesitations, what gets said in front of whom, what gets withheld? Name two or three signals you will keep an eye on.

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 — Theseus and Oenone; the lie is "confirmed" rather than told, and the sword from Act II is offered as proof
Scene 2 (first half) — Theseus confronts Hippolytus with the accusation; Hippolytus is bewildered and begins to defend himself
Scene 2 (second half) — Hippolytus denies the charge but refuses to name Phaedra; Theseus, enraged, calls down Neptune's curse on his own son
Scene 3 — Theseus alone; a brief flicker of grief ("I loved thee") before he hardens against his son
Scene 4 — Phaedra arrives ready to confess and save Hippolytus; Theseus, almost in passing, says Hippolytus loves Aricia
Scene 5 — Phaedra alone; the soliloquy — jealousy floods in and the confession dies in her throat
Scene 6 — Phaedra wants Aricia destroyed, then catches herself; the memory of Minos pulls her back; she turns on Oenone and dismisses her with a curse

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?

Words That Cannot Be Taken Back

Act IV turns on three speech acts that change reality the moment they are said. Track each one — the words themselves, what locks them in place, and what each one costs.

The Speech Act	Oenone's Lie Scene 1	Theseus's Curse end of Scene 2	Phaedra's Curse on Oenone Scene 6
THE WORDS. What is actually said? Paraphrase or quote. (For Oenone, notice she does not need to fabricate much — she reframes real things from Act I.)
WHY IRREVERSIBLE. Once these words are spoken, what locks them in place? A god's promise, another person's belief, a relationship broken — or something else?
THE COST. What does this speech act do in the world? Who pays for it, and how soon?

AFTER READING: REFLECTING ON MY UNDERSTANDING

3. Theseus enters Scene 2 furious enough to call down a curse for which there is no recall. By Scene 3, alone on stage, he gives us "I loved thee" — past tense, before any death — a flicker of grief he does not let himself feel. What does this brief private moment reveal about him that the public rage hides? And in your own life — have you watched someone you know stay angry in public after they had privately started to soften? What kept the public version going?

4. Phaedra has now been in two scenes about confession that did not happen. In Act II Scene 5 she did confess to Hippolytus, then begged him to kill her. In Act IV Scene 4 she came in ready to confess again — this time to save him — and hearing the word "Aricia" closed the window. What is different about the two attempts? What does it tell you about her — about anyone — that a person can be ready to speak the truth and then have one new piece of information about love or loss change what they believe the right thing to do is?

5. Decision Point. Act IV is structured around moments where a single short stretch of speech changes the world for good. Choose one. Examples to choose from (or find your own): (a) Hippolytus chooses honour over telling his father about Phaedra's confession — and dies for it;
(b) Phaedra is one sentence from confessing — hears the name "Aricia" — and falls silent;
(c) Theseus calls down Neptune's curse — and is locked out of recall the moment the words leave his mouth. Mark the moment (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. This is an act where what you understand depends almost entirely on what you know that the characters do not — and what they know that you do not. Theseus believes a story; Hippolytus does not know the story exists; Phaedra knows the truth and almost speaks it; Oenone knows what really happened in Act I Scene 3 and quietly weaponises it. As a reader, where did you have to slow down and consciously track who knew what? Mark one moment. Was it harder for you to hold the gap between what you knew and what the character on stage thought they knew? What strategy will you carry into Act V, where everyone's information catches up to everyone else's and what you have known all along finally gets said out loud?

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