The Trojan Horse Response-- Play and Story

Authors Note- In this response I am comparing the story and play of The Trojan Horse.

     In the parody play of The Trojan Horse, there are many differences from the original story. In the story Helen of Sparta, has an affair with the King Paris, the king of Troy, which starts a war between Greece and Troy.  After the Trojans think they have won the war, the Greeks deliver a horse filled with Greek soldiers to the city of Troy. One of the main conflicts in the story, is what to do with the horse. Should the Trojans set fire to it? Should they praise it? This story gets more in depth with the horse.

     In the play, Helen of Sparta runs away with Paris, and although similar events happen, the main conflict in this parody is the process to starting the war and the actual war itself. They do mention the horse, but it takes up a maximum of seven lines and doesn’t really show how the horse affected the war. However, the play did get more into the characters and their personalities than the book did, but the characters in the play are portrayed as immature, annoying characters. In the original story, I don’t think that during an intense battle, as your about to be stabbed you’re going to try to pull your opponents pants down and then proceed to laugh even though you were seconds away from death.  Although these changes were probably made to add humor and help people relate to the characters I didn't like them.

     One of the reasons I didn’t like these changes is because I felt like it took away from the original story. You get too distracted by the funny events that happen, that you lose the message coming from the story. I also thought that the actual horse part was very important and meaningful, but when only a short amount of time was dedicated to the horse part I was kind of disappointed. I also didn’t think that the part with Cassandra, the girl who can see into the future, was very important to the story. She didn’t’ really have an impact on the outcome or anything like that, while in the play there were scenes made just to describe her situation. Overall the changes made in the play story weren’t the best choices.