A review by xole
Andromache by Jean Racine

3.0

This continuation of the Trojan War story is told from so many points of view it can be hard to know who to sympathise with. Orestes and Achilles are typically entitled boys who feel that their love should be sufficient to win them the girl. Hermione is an enigma - either a femme fatale or an engenue. Andromache herself is simply a mother and a widow, trapped by the fall of her city. She has no status, yet she manages to secure her son’s future, partly by selling her own body (yet her decision never bears the inevitable fruit, for her tormentor is killed before any union takes place, leaving her with the benefits of a forced marriage without the attendant horror).