Passion versus reason in human decision making

Passion vs. Reason

Passion and reason: A "Modest Proposal" for "Phaedra?"

Comparing Racine's "Phaedra" with Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" may first seem like a strange exercise, almost a leap in literary logic. Phaedra, particularly as conceptualized by Racine, is perhaps the most emotionally passionate and irrational of all characters in mythological literature -- Phaedra sacrifices her husband, her social position, even her political power for the love of a stepson who does not love her back. "A Modest Proposal" is a satire of the fruits of passion in general, namely suggesting that reproduction should be viewed in such a deflationary fashion that children should be consumed to feed the starving! Passion in excess in "Phaedra" results in horrific actions. Phaedra accuses her stepson of raping her, as she hopes to prevent him marrying, so she can at least 'have' him to herself. However, an excess of reason also results in terrible actions in Swift, namely viewing human beings as food rather than living, breathing entities worthy of respect.

Both works thus show that an excess of either passion or reason results in an imbalanced world. Even in "Phaedra" the title character of Phaedra is contrasted with Hippolytus, a man who only worships Artemis. Phaedra is obsessed with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Both emotions and gods must be respected, according to Racine's overall dramatic conception. Neither reason nor passion is 'bad' merely an excess or an imbalance of one at the expense of the other. Similarly, Swift's dry, droll tone suggests his love of reason, wit, and his arch view of social niceties and conventions for which people have a great deal of emotional affection. But Swift is not advocating a triumph of reason over emotion or emotion over reason because he is satirizing people who do not take a compassionate view of the starving Irish. Rather, Swift suggests that it is equally irrational to cling to reason, and say it is economically rational to ignore people in need. The 'rational' extension of this logic would be to view human beings as nothing but animals, to be eaten as food. Despite living in vastly different time periods and deploying entirely different literary techniques in their respective genres of drama and political satire, Racine and Swift do share a common theme and philosophical heart -- balancing reason and passion is required to be fully human. Passion is not to be pitted 'against' reason; instead the two must be fused.