- gods are discriminatory/corrupt/voltaile
- gods' ignorance is detrimental to Trojans
- Athene - submits to Poseidon
+
+> In Euripides' *The Women of Troy*, the women are all passive victims
+
+Victims of hardship are typically cautious to fight back and hence are passive to further suffering. However, Euripides emphasises how this is not necessarily true, and exemplifies this through the responses of some of the women. There is a great contrast in the responseses to the d...
+
+### Paragraphs
+
+1. Women have no choice, they are passive by force
+2. They appear passive to outsiders but their rebellion within each other motivates them
+2. Hecuba is not passive
+3. Cassandra is not passive
+
+Hardship and opression inevitably forces individuals into a corner of helplessness and lament, and this is a prominent theme in Euripides' *Women of Troy*. However, despite the grief and loss that the women experience, they express a subtle element of rebellion and rejection of their inhumane treatment. As the women are gruesomely tortured by the Greeks, they have little room to object to their abuse, but Euripides emphasises how they do everything in their power to rebel against it. As a result, the play shows how those who are opressed by inhumane treatment are not necessarily forced into passivism, and that rebellion and activism always has some benefit to the individuals.
+
+The characters in *Women of Troy* are
+
+> Euripides' *Women of Troy* is not only an innovative perspective on the aftermath of the Trojan War, but also a portrayal of the barbaric actions of the Greeks towards the women and children the subjugated in the defeat of Troy. Discuss.
+
+1. Aftermath of war
+2. Barbaric actions of greeks
+
+### Women
+- what happened to them
+- imagery (violent, vivid) - depicts the women as lamenting. Loss of life, uncertain future, devestation
+
+### Innovative perspective
+
+- strength of the women of Troy
+- condemning of Greeks
+- Condemning war
+- actions have consequences.
+- focus on the victims
+- direct reaction to Melos
+- women aren't always passive victims
+
+### Greeks
+
+- journey back to Athens
+- Gods impact on the trip
+- loss of life
+- loss of courage
+- loss of humanity
+
+"After so many sorrows, and in such despair, words mean nothing". Sadness, agony and lament are feelings well-known by the characters in *The Women o Troy*, and by the end of the play, it is evident that the suffering and unfairness that is instigated in wartime is never worthwhile. As Euripides reasons with readers in regard to this sentiment, he presents an novel and innovative opinion on the aftermath of the Trojan War, and more generally, of mass conflict. This reflection focuses largely on the detriment of the Trojan women themselves, with the females dominating the storytelling in the play. This is another way in which Euripides expresses a new and potentially rebellious perspective - that women are unfairly treated, but have the power to rise up together and be more active in their denial of abuse.
+
+Vivid imagery of the Trojans being "butchered like an animal" introduces the painfully realistic theme of violence in times of war. Euripides rejects the idea of women and children being tortured or killed for pleasure, which is exemplified when Astyanax is needlessly killed by the Greeks. This scene brutally depicts the suffering caused for Astyanax, but more perpetually for the women, particularly Hecuba and Andromache. As "the blood [is] still oozing from the broken bones", Hecuba regrets "what a wretched, meaningless death" that Astyanax unnecessarily suffered. The play makes it clear that his death was callous and unnecessary, pointing out that the Greeks were "so frightened of a child". This flippant behaviour is harshly condemned by Euripides through the women's reaction - of all the violence in the play, the death of Astyanax causes the most emotional grief. As a result, after this event, readers begin to realise that Astyanax was a symbol of hope for the Trojans - the only male left who had the potential to turn the tables on the Greeks. Thus, an epiphany is forced upon readers, namely that despite having little status at the time, women and children may give hope and motivation to the society around them. Such a progressive and innovative concept was unheard of at the time, but Euripides' depiction of violence and its subsequent tragedy enables him to weave this message into the play.