Themes Revealed In Homer's 'Trojan Women'

When watching "Trojan Women", people may be struck by the strong emotional range and intensity, which is present in its main theme, the devastation created by war in the lives of women and children. The agony and despair present in the actors voices and the intensity of their actions added to the total success of the play. Each scene deals with barbaric behavior toward women and children, but the three most prominent scenes were when Hecuba questions her faith in the gods, when the men of the Greek army divided the women amongst themselves, and when the messenger returns to tell them that Hector and Andromache's son would have to be killed. Due to the circumstances that the women find themselves in, they all begin to question their faith in the traditional gods. For example, Hecuba, the Queen of Troy, finds herself questioning her faith in the gods as well as questioning man's dependence on the gods. All of the women expect wisdom and justice from the gods, but they just keep getting treated badly. During this scene, the women's acting skills were important, because the despair and hopelessness in their voices resembled their feelings of abandonment. When things do not go as people hope for them to go, people begin to question their faith in whatever they believe. In the women's minds, they
believed that if the gods really existed, they would try to stop the horrible treatment that these women were receiving. After all, why would gods really want children as sacrifices when they should really look down on that kind of treatment of helpless children. Next, the barbaric treatment of women is evident when the leaders of the Greek army consider the female prisoners as prizes that they won that were to be divided amongst themselves.
However, these women are noble women who have served a role to their husbands, and they do not deserve to be treated this way. Watching this scene angered me, because men cannot just expect the women to drop all their morals and move back with them to become their slaves. These women should have been able to have some opinion and be able to stand up for themselves to tell them if they would return with them or not. However, these women had no rights and were basically treated as
property. The final example of the barbaric treatment of women is evident when the women are waiting to find out where they will be sent, and Talthybius, the messenger, comes to say that the Greeks have decided to execute Hector and Andromache's son. As if the women were not deep enough in misery at finding out their own fates, but now the Greeks had extended their barbaric treatment once more to children. This scene was unbearable, because a mother should not be forced to just give up the life of her son when she is already being forced to give up so many other things. The Greeks may have been worried that he would retaliate in later years, but he was only a helpless child at the time. At this point, the women fall deeper into the depths of misery as they see the full extent of the barbarianism of the Greeks. All of these examples help to explain the full extent of the barbarianism present in these Greek leaders. When men are caught in the middle of war, whether it is internal, actual war, or just an argument among friends, they exhibit ruthless violence on their opponents. In many cases, the victims are those who are too helpless to defend themselves, such as women and children in this case. War cannot be avoided, but everyone pays a cost during war, whether it be through a soldier losing his own life, a victim getting treated badly, or a family member losing a loved one. The vivid despair and harsh treatment of women in"Trojan Women" helped depict the fact that war is not a pretty picture and is not something to be taken lightly.