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| Character | Helen | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Crying, Descriptive, Depressed, Lamenting, Frustrated, Insecure, Afraid, Reminiscing life story/Telling a story | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Helen laments her fate | |
| Location | Episode 1 | |
Summary
The legend says that the episode that caused the Trojan war, the epic war between Troy and the Greek army, was the kidnapping of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, by Paris, Prince of Troy. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, held a beauty contest with other goddesses, Athena and Hera and promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world if he judged her as the fairest. Paris chose Helen as his prize and took her to Troy. Another legend says that in reality Helen never reached Troy but was brought to Egypt by the gods. The woman that Paris brought to Troy was only a phantom look-alike.
This play takes as a premise this possibility and takes place in Egypt, where the real Helen has lived for the entire time of the Trojan war. This monologue is delivered after Helen learns from a messenger that Menelaus, her husband, has died in a sea storm. She laments the fact that everybody in Greece hates her for being the cause of the Trojan war and laments the death of her husband, which now makes her available for marriage to the Egyptian prince Theoclymenus, who wants to marry her.
This play takes as a premise this possibility and takes place in Egypt, where the real Helen has lived for the entire time of the Trojan war. This monologue is delivered after Helen learns from a messenger that Menelaus, her husband, has died in a sea storm. She laments the fact that everybody in Greece hates her for being the cause of the Trojan war and laments the death of her husband, which now makes her available for marriage to the Egyptian prince Theoclymenus, who wants to marry her.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| HELEN Good friends, to what a fate am I united? Did not my mother bear me to be a monster to the world? For no woman, Hellene or barbarian, gives birth to babes in eggs inclosed, as they say Leda bare me to Zeus. My life and all I do is one miracle, partly owing to Hera, and partly is my beauty to blame. Would God I could rub my beauty out like a picture, and assume hereafter in its stead a form less comely, and oh! that Hellas had forgotten the evil fate that now I bear, and were now remembering my career of honour as surely as they do my deeds of shame. Now, if a man doth turn his eyes to a single phase of fortune, and meets ill-usage at heaven's hands, 'tis hard no doubt; but still it can be borne; but I in countless troubles am involved. First, although I never sinned, my good name is gone. And this is a grief beyond the reality, if a man incurs blame for sins that are not his. Next, have the gods removed me from my native land, to dwell with men of barbarous ways, and reft of every friend, I arn become a slave though free by birth; for amongst barbarians all are slaves but one. And the last anchor that held my fortunes, the hope that my husband would return one day, and rid me of my woes, is now no more, lost since the day he died. My mother too is dead, and I am called her murderess, unjustly it is true, but still that injustice is mine to bear; and she that was the glory of my house, my darling child, is growing old and grey, unwedded still; and those twin brethren, called the sons of Zeus, are now no more. But 'tis fortune, not my own doing, that hath crushed me with sorrow and slain me. And this is the last evil of all; if ever I come to my native land. they will shut me up in prison, thinking me that Helen of Ilium, in quest of whom Menelaus came thither. Were my husband still alive, we might have recognized each other, by having recourse to tokens which ourselves alone would know. But now this may not be, nor is there any chance of his escape. Why then do I prolong my life? What fortune have I still in store? Shall I choose marriage as an alternative of evils, and dwell with a barbarian lord, seated at his sumptuous board? No! when a husband she loathes is mated with a woman, even life is loathly to her. Best for her to die; but how shall I die a noble death? The dangling noose is an uncomely end; even slaves consider it disgrace; to stab oneself hath something fair and. noble in it; 'tis a small thing that moment of ridding the flesh of life. Yes, it must be; I am plunged so deep in misery; for that beauty, which to other women is a boon, to me hath been a very bane. |
