in the beginning, menelaus - helen's husband - leaves troy in search of her and plans to kill her for all the trouble her beauty has caused. instead, the two set out on a week-long voyage back to sparta. menelaus questions why his wife ran away from sparta to begin with, saying that he didn't believe her involvement with paris was enough. once at home, helen talks with charita and tells her that in the beginning, she thought she loved paris and that is why she ran away with him, but she realized she only loved something he made her think of, and in the end, she only felt sorry for him. she goes on to say that she felt sorry for paris because she could see he was "lost in the madness" just as she was. she tells her that marriage starts with love, but the people in the marriage get lost along the way and calls marriages fatal errors.