Symbol: Astyanax's body
The body of Astyanax is a potent symbol. A child cut down before his prime, the last hope of the Trojans, Astyanax is now as impotent and negated as his father and the rest of the Trojans, living or dead. Critic Raymond Anselment puts this in stark terms: "Astyanax's broken body, carried on the shield of Hector, is emblematic of the total dramatic experience in The Trojan Women. The dead boy and the captured shield suggest the father and son united now both in death and in defeat. For the Trojan women who helplessly watch and mourn, the procession signifies the final recognition of the end of present and future expectations."
Motif: Song
Singing and songs are everywhere throughout the play. A core component of Greek drama, song allows the audience to tap more deeply into the emotions of the singer(s). The Trojan Women is mostly full of laments, songs for the women to wonder about their fate, remember the past, mourn their lost loved ones and lives, and express anger at those who caused the war. Hecuba's groans and shrieks punctuate the singing to add an extra layer of stabbing emotion.
Symbolism: Staging
There is symbolism in the staging of the play in that Poseidon and Athena are on the walls of Troy, thus suggesting their elevated position and their ultimate indifference to the fate of human beings, and that Hecuba is on the ground, debased and despairing. When those very walls begin to come down at the end of the play, it symbolizes the final end of Troy.
Symbol: Kassandra's Torch
Kassandra is waving a torch when she enters the scene and begins to deliver her prophecies. A torch is a symbol of light and knowledge; indeed, that is what Kassandra is doing by explaining that her going with Agamemnon will destroy that house and will bring a measure of revenge for the Trojans, which is also the case with the sufferings of Odysseus and his men. She possesses knowledge others do not have, but alas, her prophecies are ironically relegated to the "dark" because no one believes her.
Allegory: The Trojan War
The play is sometimes considered an allegory for what the Athenians recently did to the Melians. As described by Thucydides, the Athenians brutally conquered the island of Melos in 415, the same year in which the play was staged, and subjected its people to the gross injustices portrayed in The Trojan Women. Euripides may have been trying to convict his audience by eliciting their sympathy for the characters, which would then force them to look more closely at their own behavior.
