Hecuba Character Analysis

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In Hecuba, the main character, Hecuba, is first seen as an extremely passive character, whose peers push her around. However, after the deaths of her children, her world view changes. Once these murders take place, she becomes an active character, no longer letting the world take advantage of her. In this essay I will analyze how the deaths of Polydorus and Polyxena were what caused Hecuba to no longer be a passive character, but an active character who takes care of her own issues. The first time Hecuba speaks it is about a prophetic dream she had the previous night. In this dream, “Achilles’ phantom came above the high crest of the tomb. He was demanding as a prize some one of the many-troubled Trojan women” (83). Although she suspects that the victim will be her daughter, she prays to the gods for intervention instead of When she identifies the corpse, she begins to recite “irregular, sung, lyrics” (105), known as the “Bacchic song, from a god of Vengeance” (105). Bacchus is known as the god of ritual madness and fertility who favors women, so Hecuba hopes that invoking his name will help her seek revenge on those who wronged her. This is the last time she puts her faith in the gods, later stating that Persuasion is “the sole ruler of mankind” (110). From this moment on, the play focuses on Hecuba enacting revenge on Polymestor, the man who murdered her son. Instead of letting terrible things happen to her, she decides to take charge and create her own vengeance. Hecuba accomplishes this when she and the Trojan women blind Polymestor and kill his two sons. With these actions, Hecuba is no longer passive, but an active character. All in all, the murders of Polyxena and Polydorus were the catalyst that caused Hecuba to become an active character. Without these two deaths, Hecuba would have accepted the necessity of being a slave, forever staying a passive

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