Hecuba’s Grief, Polydorus’ Corpse and the Transference of Perspective

Abstract

Euripides structures the dramatic action of Hecuba, not as the tragedy of an individual, but as the moral failings of a group, as a group tragedy.¹ Hecuba is not to be understood as an illustration of hysteria but as an exploration of intersubjectivity, of how the self merges with the other through grief. Euripides structures Hecuba to reveal the failings and limitations of the Trojan community but also the failure and limitations of a given self as exemplified by Hecuba. Her pain essen-tializes Euripides’ dramatization of grief, of that deep sorrow which compels us to mourn the absence of and sometimes even to assimilate the “other”. In grief’s passion, in its intense suffering, the rigid boundaries of subjectivity are dissolved. Grief prompts the self to grope towards apprehension of the other. Here this radical thrust towards other depends upon the self’s experiencing of crisis, a process whereby it recognizes a radical dissatisfaction with its own identity, its current perimeters. Grief provides for a redefinition of self, allowing for a transference of perspective where the self is repositioned and realligns itself with the contours of other.