La réparation mesurée, une héroïne cornélienne inspiratrice de la paix sociale

Abstract

The passion for revenge, marked by a desire for retaliation and a quest for justice lies at the heart of the themes in theatre, mindsets, and morals of the early 17th century. Its interest, arising at the intersection of the establishment of legal models persist through successive decades. Its analyses are still the subject of contemporary research. One of the characters who perhaps embodies this apparent ambivalence between passion and quest for justice is Chimène in Pierre Corneille’s tragedy Le Cid from 1637. Her character, a young noblewoman of the 11th century, torn between passion and the quest for honour of the Spanish court and her feelings for the victor of the battles, The Cid, has become legendary. In Corneille’s tragedy Chimène not only passes through different stages of the female condition but also seems to invest the power of a judicial function, inherent to a modern state.