Thinking About Your Thinking

Metacognitive Reading Worksheet

Phaedra — Act V: The Reckoning

NAME

DATE

A DAY

B DAY

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BEFORE READING: Preparing My Mind

1. Act V is the final act — seven scenes, three deaths. Before you read, think about what you know about each character’s choices so far. For Phaedra, Hippolytus, and Theseus, what kind of ending do you expect? What in their behaviour so far makes you think that?

2. As you read Act V, what is one thing you intend to pay attention to? This might be a character you want to watch closely, a question that has been nagging at you, or a pattern you want to track.

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
Scenes 1–2: Hippolytus proposes that he and Aricia flee together and marry at a temple outside Troezen. Theseus returns and catches Aricia alone.
Scenes 3–4: Aricia begins to defend Hippolytus to Theseus, then stops herself. Theseus is left alone and, for the first time, begins to doubt.
Scenes 5–6: Panope reports that Oenone has drowned herself. Theramenes arrives and delivers his account of Hippolytus’s death.
Scene 7: Phaedra enters, confesses that Hippolytus was innocent and that she alone is responsible. She dies onstage from a poison she has already taken.

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

Passage from the Text (with act, scene, and page number)	My Thinking: Why did this passage stand out to me?

Moment Tracker: For each key moment below, record your immediate reaction and one question it raises for you.

There are no right answers here. This column is about catching yourself thinking.

Moment	My Reaction	My Question
Hippolytus refuses to tell Theseus the truth about Phaedra, saying it would cause his father shame (V.1)
Aricia begins to defend Hippolytus to Theseus, then catches herself and goes silent (V.3)
Theramenes delivers his account of how Hippolytus died — the messenger speech (V.6)
Phaedra’s final confession: “Your son was innocent” — spoken as she is already dying (V.7)

AFTER READING: Reflecting on My Understanding

3. In Act V, several characters know the truth but choose not to speak it — or speak it too late. Choose one character whose silence or delay had the most serious consequences. What did they withhold, why did they withhold it, and what resulted?

4. Phaedra’s final confession names her passion for Hippolytus as the origin of everything that has followed. By the time she speaks, she is already dying. Does her confession feel like a release from desire, a final act of it, or something else entirely? Explain your thinking, using specific moments from the play.

5. Racine shows us a world where desire and concealment work together to produce catastrophe. Looking back across the whole play, where did these two forces combine most dangerously? Was there a moment — a decision, a silence, a lie — that felt like a point of no return?

6. At the end of the play Theseus vows to mourn his son and adopt Aricia — but Hippolytus is already dead and the damage cannot be undone. Does the ending feel like justice, punishment, waste, or something that resists any simple label? What do you think Racine is saying about how the world works?

7. Making It Yours: The messenger speech and Phaedra’s onstage death are designed to make us feel, not just understand, what concealment costs. Has there been a moment in your own life — or in something you have witnessed — when telling the truth sooner would have changed things significantly? You do not need to share anything private; you can write about it in general terms. What made it difficult to speak?

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