But we find out later that Menelaus and Helen kida have a normal relationship! No, I would understand resentment, a reluctance to talk to Helen — but I absolutely cannot imagine Menelaus doing something like that...
After all, no matter how hurt he might feel (I'm not Menelaus, but I swear I would be hurt), somewhere deep down he must understand that this was the will of the Gods, and if the Gods decide to do something, you don't really have much of a choice!
For the Gods sake, what's wrong with N-s head???
Okay based on the actual sources, Menelaus did want revenge on Helen with the intend to strike her down. Once he got into her chambers helen stunned him with her beauty, his anger evaporating instantly. He then protects her from the wrath of the remaining Greek soldiers who wanted her stoned to death.
There's also the other version where helen was like a ghost in Troy while the real one was all the time in Egypt so menelaus went there to take her which is a funny play by euripides, however this isn't the most used version of their myth.
So aside from that variation, even in Odyssey we see a couple in good terms! Menelaus doesn't treat her like a prisoner or a reformed traitor,instead he speaks to her softly and validates her presence but! there's clear tension. In the book the scene went like this:
Telemachus arrives in Sparta looking for news of his father, Odysseus. He is welcomed warmly by Menelaus and Helen
Helen tells her story first. She describes Odysseus sneaking into Troy dressed as a beggar. She proudly boasts that she was the only one who recognized him, that she swore an oath not to betray him, and that she rejoiced when he killed Trojans because she desperately wanted to go back to Menelaus. She explicitly blames the "madness" Aphrodite sent upon her.
Menelaus responds by telling her, "Yes, my wife, all that you have said is fair and right." But then he immediately tells the story of the Trojan Horse. He describes how Helen walked around the horse, calling out to the hidden Greek men by mimicking the voices of their individual wives. He points out that Odysseus had to physically restrain the men from calling back. Athena had to step in and physically lure Helen away because the entire war was on the line. ("until Pallas Athena drew you away" / «ὄφρα σε νόσφιν ἀπήγαγε Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη»)
The mood in the room immediately becomes so heavy and uncomfortable that Helen realizes she has to intervene. That is when she slips the nepenthe (the drug of forgetfulness) into the wine so they can all stop crying and finish their dinner.
So we see these characters in a marriage that isn't the hostile situation the movie version did, but two people who experienced and told their side of the stories to how the events went, how they want to be perceived, sometimes putting their ego upfront as a mechanism of guilt, which makes it far more interesting than simply this black and white narrative of "bad Menelaus and victim Helen"
