An Introduction to Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida

Shakespeare's Three Kinds of Plays

• History--Plays depicting the lives of English kings such as King John, Richard II and III, Henry IV, V, VI, VIII

• Comedy--Typically a light play which ends happily regardless of how grim things look. In the end, all the unmarried principle characters are typically happily married.

• Tragedy--However promising a heros future may look, the play will end in his destruction, usually because of some flaw in his character.

Characteristics of history plays

• Shakespeare's plays written during reign of Queen Elizabeth, so the plays are regarded as Tutor propaganda
• Celebrate the dangers of civil war
• Promote the virtues of the Tutor monarchy
• Pictures the decline of the medieval world
• Nostalgic look back at the Middle Ages

Characteristics of Comedies

• A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty that is often presented by elders
• Separation and unification
• Mistaken identities
• A clever servant
• Heightened tensions, often within a family
• Usually involves multiple marriages
• Multiple, intertwining plots
• Frequent use of puns

Characteristics of Tragedies

• It is the human condition to suffer.
• Humans are doomed because of their own failures or errors or, ironically, because of their own virtues.
• People have free will.
• The hero is capable of both good and evil.
• The hero is always able to back out, to redeem himself.
• But, heroes must move unheedingly to their doom

Background to Troilus and Cressida

• Shakespeare sets this play in the story of the ten-year-long Trojan War.
• Troilus, a brother of Paris who stole the beautiful Helen from her husband starting the war, falls in love with Cressida.
• Cressida loves Troilus, too, but plays hard to get.
• The play traces not only their romance but covers the exploits of various heroes from Greek mythology including Ulysses, Achilles and Ajax attempts to end the war.
• Themes in the play include betrayal and jealousy.

Summary of the Iliad

• A poem of 24 books.
• Title derives from Ilion, another name for Troy.
• Regards Achilles anger at Agamemnon who has stolen a woman from him.
• Achilles friend, Patroclus, leads Achilles soldiers into battle, disguised as Achilles, but is killed by Hector.
• Achilles kills Hector.
• Provides interesting picture into daily life in Troy.

The Trojan Horse

• The Trojan war languishes as the siege stretches for 10 years.
• After Achilles death, the Greeks build a giant wooden horse and hide several soldiers inside.
• The Greeks sail away, leaving one deserter behind. The deserter offers the horse as a gift with the claim that it will protect Troy.
• Despite warnings, the horse is dragged inside the walls.
• During the night, the soldiers leave the horse, open the gates, and let the Greek soldiers in.

The major characters: Helen

• Daughter of Zeus and Leda
• Considered the most beautiful woman in the world
• Married to Menelaus but carried away by Paris
• Trojan war was a 10-year battle to retrieve her.
• Eventually reconciled to Menelaus
• Frequently referred to in literature with lines like: The face that launched a thousand ships. (Christopher Marlowe)

The major characters: Paris

• One of the sons of Priam, king of Troy
• Prophets predicted he would bring about the destruction of Troy.
• Sent away to live with shepherds, but eventually returned to court.
• As a reward for settling a dispute between three goddesses, he was granted the most beautiful woman in the world.

Judgment of Paris

• At marriage feast of Peleus and Thetis, Eris (goddess of strife) throws down golden apple inscribed, to the fairest.
• Hera (marriage), Athene (wisdom, war, arts), and Aphrodite (love and beauty) all claim it.
• Paris, most handsome mortal man, asked to settle the dispute.
• Gives apple to Aphrodite.
• Rewarded with most beautiful woman in the world, who turns out to be Helen.

The major characters: Menelaus

• King of Sparta
• Husband of Helen whom Paris carries off, starting the Trojan war
• Joins a confederation of Greek chiefs sent to bring Helen back
• Represented as unfortunately in love and war
• He is perpetually over shadowed by Agamemnon.
• Eventually returns to Sparta with Helen who comes to despise Paris

The major characters: Agamemnon

• King of Mycenae, wife of Clytemnestra, Helen's sister
• Unites Greek chiefs to wage war against Troy
• Sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, to obtain favorable sailing weather
• Returned safely home with Cassandra after the Trojan war
• Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, murders him for the sacrifice of her daughter.

The major characters: Achilles

• Considered the greatest warrior
• Charmed by his mother, Thetis, who dipped him in the river Styx
• Was invulnerable except for his heel (the Achilles tendon) where his mother held him.
• Thetis dressed him as a girl to avoid the Trojan war
• Quarreled with Agamemnon putting the outcome of the Trojan war in jeopardy
• Killed by Paris who shot him through the heel

The major characters: Hector

• Son of Priam, brother of Paris
• Troy's version of Achilles, the most respected warrior and leader of Troy's army
• Represented as a man of human affections, devoted to wife and child, noble in victory and defeat.
• Contrasted with the temperamental Achilles
• Killed Patroclus whom he believed to be Achilles

The major characters: Aeneas

• Son of goddess Venus, cousin to Priam
• Second in valor to Hector and a commander of Trojan forces
• Fled Troy at the command of the gods, carrying his father and his family wealth on his shoulder.
• Led a band of Trojan refugees to Italy and founded the Roman culture
• At his death he was deified at the request of his mother.

The major characters: Cassandra

• Prophetess and daughter to Priam
• Loved by the god, Apollo, but resisted him, so he rendered her gift of prophesy useless
• Foresaw the doom of Troy, but no one believed her
• When Troy fell, she was dragged from the temple of Athena where shed taken refuge and was violated by Ajax
• Was taken by Agamemnon and killed by his wife

The major characters: Priam

• King of Troy at the time of its fall
• Father of 50 sons and numerous daughters.
• Homer pictures him as a pathetic character who has lost so many children
• Known as being kindly to Helen, the source of all his difficulties.
• Bravely entered Achilles camp to beg for Hector's body