SOURCE: Biet, Christian. “Women and Power in Britannicus and Bérénice: The Battle of Blood and Tears.” In Racine: The Power and the Pleasure, edited by Edric Calidcott and Derval Conroy, pp. 39-54. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2001.

In the following essay, Biet explores the aesthetic, anthropological, and ideological aspects of the motif of tears in Britannicus and Bérénice, focusing on the tears of the characters Junie and Bérénice.

In a previous study on Racine, with a focus on the ‘passion of tears’,¹ I was struck by the fact that the dramaturgical and emotional principle of tears was of primary importance in the majority of the Racinian tragedies, particularly in Britannicus, Bérénice, and Andromaque. Similarly, theatrical effects and their ideological consequences were connected in such a way that the tears of women, heroes and kings, and also the tears provoked by...