#like she runs away with paris but her marriage with menelaus wasn't loveless just at a bit of an impasse

[teagrammy]

I love how Paris toys with Helen's sense of her own destiny and her sense of humanity as a demigod, especially in relation to her own feelings toward Paris. She implies that she's seen visions/had premonitions about Paris since childhood

In "Perfect Stranger" there's a sense that Aphrodite has guided her to the beach to engineer this meeting with Paris. However, in a less supernatural sense it could indicate that since she's a child she's had an underlying desire for someone who encourages her to be emotive and give into the desires of the heart.

She establishes in both "Long Time Coming" and "Thoughts of Love" that she's lived as a figurehead for her whole life, and in "Chorale" the chorus outright states that she is fashioned in the image of the gods. She feels like she cannot be human, and in a way she's correct because even at the point Paris meets her she's already mythologized. Paris on the other hand is human to a degree that she finds embarrassing, but also intriguing and endearing. It helps that when they meet, Paris doesn't know her identity as the Queen of Sparta, but just sees this beautiful woman Aphrodite has promised to him. He worships her, but in a way that seeks to prioritize Helen's comfort and feelings and make her feel loved. It makes her uncomfortable because she's been worshipped in a way previously that distances her from her humanity. Menelaus outright states this in "Thief in the Night."

Menelaus clearly adores Helen, but in a way that makes Helen feel alienated. She's admired but in a way that makes her more symbol than human. Yet at the same time, Helen has this deep sense of dread that indulging in this human part of her will bring ruin for everyone involved. If she's seen visions, she understands the fate of her relationship with Paris is not going to end happily. But what Paris ultimately argues, and she ultimately accepts is that these sacrifices are needed for her to actually progress and have some sort of fulfilment as a human. In a twisted way, even though Paris dies, the whole affair shifts Menelaus' perspective of Helen and makes him more attentive to her human needs afterward.

Anyway, it's just wild an 80s rock opera gave Helen better characterization and more depth than she's gotten from supposed feminist retellings in the past ten years, but that's neither here nor there.