YMMV / The Trojan Women

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Helen's character hinges on the Judgement of Paris; she says it happened while Hecuba says it didn't. If Hecuba is right, then Helen is something of a Jerkass who thinks it's Never My Fault and her treatment is at least somewhat karmic, while if Helen is right, then she had absolutely no agency in the start of the war and is blamed for Aphrodite being a Jerkass God.
  • Interestingly, Euripedes wrote another play, Helen, that proposed that neither was true; the Judgement of Paris really happened, but the real Helen was spirited away to Egypt by Athena and Hera, and the 'Helen' who ran away with Paris was an illusion... which, if true to this play as well, would mean the whole argument was pointless since the Helen who appeared in The Trojan Women would've been the illusion and the real Helen would be unambiguously innocent of everything.
• Angst Aversion: A lot of readers (including translator Gilbert Murray) just simply can't finish the play because of how bleak and hopeless it is, with the only hope for the characters being Athena and Poseidon's curse on the Greek warriors and Cassandra's promise of bringing ruin to Agamemnon.
• Applicability: Due to its universal themes of War Is Hell, playwrights often update or reference more familiar settings in their adaptations. This can range from Sartre using it to criticize European imperialism to setting it in the 19th century African kingdom of Owu to post-apocalyptic sci-fi.
• Base-Breaking Character: Helen. Being easily the least sympathetic female character of the group as well as having a war waging because of her that led to the entire tragedy doesn't do her any favors. Even in the 1971 film adaptation, the critics were split between finding Irene Papas miscast (and thinking co-star Vanessa Redgrave would be better as the World's Most Beautiful Woman) and the famously Caustic Critic Pauline Kael declaring "you can believe men would fight over her".
• He Really Can Act: Brian Blessed is best remembered as a Large Ham, but this movie is often pointed to by people who like to prove he had plenty to offer as an actor as well.
• One-Scene Wonder: Cassandra appears in a single scene where she lights the fires to celebrate her "marriage" to Agamemnon, and she totally steals the scene with her wild Foreshadowing and a very sympathetic purpose of revenge.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: This play did this to many of the flat female characters in the Trojan War mythology while boosting up old favorite Cassandra. The most prominent examples are Hecuba, Andromache and Helen, who went from Satellite Character to the lead in their titular plays.
• Tear Jerker: The entire play from beginning to end is a miserable and heart-wrenching read.
• Values Resonance: War Is Hell, no matter if it was 1200 BC, 415 BC or even 2000 AD. The message is timeless and universal, which is why the tragedy has aged so well.
• The Woobie:
  • The entire Trojan female population, but those who stand out are Hecuba and Andromache.
  • Helen might be this or a Jerkass Woobie, depending on whether you think the Judgement of Paris is 'canon' to the story. If it is, she's treated as a prize in a divine popularity contest just because she's pretty and everyone hates her for something Aphrodite mind-controlled her into doing. If it isn't, she made a stupid mistake as a young woman and has thus spent 10 years in a city that absolutely hated her, she gets zero sympathy from the other women, and still only barely avoids being executed.