What do Aristotles theories imply?
7. Though Theseus’ recognition is the main one, recognition does occur more widely in the plot: the Nurse discovers Phaedra’s secret; Hippolytus discovers Phaedra’s secret; Theseus discovers Hippolytus’ guilt. But the latter two are false recognitions: Hippolytus and Theseus are misled. Oedipus starts with everyone in ignorance; in Hippolytus the ignorance is constructed in the course of the play. Thus the polarity of knowledge and ignorance which Aristotle discusses in ch. 14, and the associated idea of recognition, are basic to the whole structure of the play. 8. Is Theseus’ recognition technically a good one by Aristotle’s standards? It is concerned with someone closely connected to him; this means that it is emotionally potent (see ch. 11, 52a31). (Admittedly Theseus already knew that Hippolytus was his son; what he now discovers is that Hippolytus had not in fact violated the father-son relation, so that the son he had destroyed was innocent. So it is not the fact of connection th
