Main Characters
Kassandra of Troy is the story's protagonist, and it is told from her perspective. It begins at an unidentified location, where an elderly Kassandra tiredly agrees to correct the Homeric version of the Trojan War that is told by a traveling minstrel. Kassandra recounts her life experiences at Troy and Colchis, and how she came to balk at the gender roles dictated by Trojan culture. Her tale also includes her inner turmoil over which deity she should be serving: the Goddess or Apollo.
To her family Kassandra is early on known as the "clever girl," while her older sister Polyxena is the "proper, modest", and "pretty one". Her parents intend for Kassandra to be brought up as a lady and eventually marry a nobleman, to her gradual displeasure. She often comes into conflict with her father, king Priam, who is variously characterized as cruel, violent, and power-hungry. Queen Hecuba and Kassandra are not close, with the former often disparaging her daughter for her prophecies. Though Hecuba grew up as an Amazon, she has gradually come to adopt patriarchal Trojan customs as her own.
The warrior Hector is close to their sister Polyxena, and is described by Kassandra at one point as a bully. He disapproves of Kassandra's desire to be a warrior, but is much loved in the city. As an adult Kassandra later reflects, "of all, Hector was closest to their hearts, and the least loved. Was it only that she had always been so different from the others?" Kassandra is happiest when she travels with the Amazons. Penthesilea, their chief, becomes the mother figure in Kassandra's life.
Hector's wife, Andromache, is the elder daughter of queen Imandra; despite Colchis' matriarchal culture, she is content to adopt Trojan culture and be subservient to her husband. She and Kassandra become close, as does Kassandra with Helen, despite her initial distaste for the problems Helen brings to Troy. Despite being her twin, Paris shows a dislike for Kassandra. Early in the story, Bradley writes that his main character flaw is "a total lack of interest in anything that did not relate to himself or contribute in some way to his own comfort and satisfaction."
Read more about this topic: The Firebrand
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“But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward, the voices of Duty call—
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
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“No one of the characters in my novels has originated, so far as I know, in real life. If anything, the contrary was the case: persons playing a part in my life—the first twenty years of it—had about them something semi-fictitious.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)