Athalie is a tragedy in five acts, with respectively 4, 9, 8, 6 and 8 scenes, in verse by Jean Racine. Unlike Esther, Athalie is a real tragedy in five acts. The choruses are present at the end of each act. With Athalie reached with the grandeur of Greek tragedy that he knew very well. He also used some of Joad's speech.

[edit] History

After the success of Esther, Racine published Athalie in 1691, another play about the Bible, which he expected would have the same success.

[edit] Plot

Athalie, widow of the king of Judah, rules the country and believes he has eliminated all the rest of the royal family. She has abandoned the Jewish religion for the worship of Baal. However, the late king's grand-son Joash was rescued by the wife of the high priest.

• Act 1 - Joad, the Jewish high priest, ensures Abner, a military officer, that he would support a possible descendant of the king of Judah if he appeared. Then he agrees with his wife Jehoshebath to reveal the existence of Joash and dethrone Athalie, thus bringing the country back to the true religion.
• Act 2 - Athalie goes into the Jewish temple and finds a baby she has seen in a dream. She does not know that this child is Joash. She asked Joad to bring the child and she invites him to come live with her at the palace. But Joash, was educated in the Jewish religion by the high priest.
• Act 3 - Fearing a plot by Joad, Athalie wants Joash sent as a hostage. The high priest is preparing to proclaim Joash as king to hasten things.
• Act 4 - Joash reveals he is the descendant and successor of the kings of Judah. The priests barricade the Temple.
• Act 5 - Athalie prepares to dislodge the rebels from the Temple. She comes to claim the child. Joad tells her that is Joash. Outside, the attackers panic and flee. Joad executes Athalie.

[edit] Reception

Athalie was the victim of opposition from moralists at its creation. Represented on the public scene after the death of Madame de Maintenon, it was never part of the most popular plays of Racine, though Voltaire saw it as "perhaps the masterpiece of mankind" and Flaubert as the most "immortal masterpiece of the French stage".

[edit] External links

• Text of Athalie (french)

v • d • e The plays of Jean Racine Alexandre le Grand · Andromaque · Athalie · Bajazet · Bérénice · Britannicus · Esther · Iphigénie · La Thébaïde · Les Plaideurs · Mithridate · Phèdre