Troilus and Cressida

Synopsis by Cate Yu...

Joyce Carol Oates explains "Troilus and Cressida" as such:

Troilus and Cressida, that most vexing and ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays, strikes the modern reader as a contemporary document—its investigation of numerous infidelities, its criticism of tragic pretensions, above all, its implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only existential are themes of the twentieth century. […] This is a tragedy of a special sort—the "tragedy" the basis of which is the impossibility of conventional tragedy.

The tragedy Shakespeare wrote in 1602 is now categorized as a problem play, because its protagonist does not die and the love between Troilus and Cressida is eventually ruptured. The story of Troilus and Cressida is not one of the Greek myths but a medieval tale that ignited the imagination of several dramatists in the early 1600s. As well-worn as the tale would have been to Elizabethan audiences, it is one of Shakespeare's least performed plays. There are no recorded performances of it during Shakespeare's lifetime. Part of the reason for this may stem from the play's reputation for being difficult to watch. The vices of the characters are unforgivable as they are disturbingly familiar. There are no moral absolutes in this tragedy. The play surveys a bleak reality. A caustic cynicism utterly entrenches the drama in its depiction of immorality and disillusionment during a long stretch of war.

When a Trojan prince, Paris, abducted Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, from her Greek husband King Menelaus, one of the most famous wars in the Western world was launched. The Trojan War. Shakespeare sets his play seven years into the bloodbath. At the beginning of "Troilus and Cressida", Troilus, the youngest son of the King of Troy and brother to both Paris and Hector (the greatest warrior of the Trojans), is presented to us as a typical Shakespearean lovesick hero. In his conversation with Pandarus, uncle to Cressida, a Trojan maid, we learn that Troilus has lost his fighting spirit due to his heartache for Cressida. Pandarus is Cressida's uncle and remains the two lovers' go-between for the duration of the play. By the end of the scene, Troilus is called to the battlefield signaling the play's tension between political duty and romance. Meanwhile, Cressida converses with her servant about Trojan prince Hector, who is a valiant warrior. Pandarus, in an attempt to woo Cressida on behalf of Troilus, suggests Troilus is a greater character than Hector. He promises to retrieve for his niece, a token from Troilus.

The war has reached a stalemate. The Greeks army is in a crisis because the camp has been divided into factions instead of being unified. Their greatest fighter, Achilles, refuses to fight and has withdrawn to his tent with his male lover Patroclus. Other warriors have followed Achilles' suit so the army is of a corrupted spirit. While Homer's Achilles is heroic, Shakespeare's Achilles is a complex character who veers into villainy at times. Aeneus enters with a flag of truce and bears a challenge from Hector. The Trojan prince offers to fight any one of the Greek lords in a single combat. The Greeks agree to designate one of their men to fight Hector. Clever politician Ulysses tells Nestor, a Greek commander, that Hector's challenge is truly directed Achilles since Achilles is the only Greek warrior who can match Hector's physical prowess. In Act one scene three, Ulysses famously diagnoses the ills of the Greek army. The speech ends: "To end a tale of length,/ Troy in our weakness lives, not in her strength" (I. iii. 137-8). Ulysses decides that the camp should send Ajax instead, which might insult Achilles enough to goad him into rejoining the war. Nestor agrees with Ulysses's plan.

In Act II, the Trojans debate among themselves what they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of keeping Helen. Hector and Troilus debate whether a thing has an intrinsic value or whether a thing only has the value we assign it. Hector believes that Helen is not worth the lives she costs but his brother Troilus contends that honor demands they continue to fight for her. Hector ventually comes around to Troilus's point of view.

In Act three, Troilus and Cressida pledge to be faithful to each other. Lust, however, dominates their course of action and they quickly go off to consummate their passion. Meanwhile, Cressida's father, Calchas, who has left his native Troy to serve the Greeks, asks the Greek general to exchange Trojan commander Antenor for Cressida. Agamemnon, the Commander in Chief of the Grecian army, assigns Diomedes to carry out the exchange.

In other news, Achilles learns he does not like being scorned or blackmailed. Ulysses has orchestrated it so that the men do not respond to Achilles's greetings. In private, Ulysses confronts Achilles about his secret affair with a Trojan princess, and gives a lecture on time and reputation. Achilles resigns himself to the task of regaining his reputation and honor.

In Act four, Diomedes brings Cressida back to the Greek camp. Ulysses insists she is to be kissed by everyone. Refusing to kiss her himself, when she is out of earshot, he declares her a loose, unvirtuous woman. Agamemnon asks about the unhappy Trojan. Ulysses identifies him as Troilus, then goes on to say that Troilus may be a greater man than Hector. That night, Diomedes slips off from a feast to see Cressida. Troilus and Thersites follow the rogue and observe from separate hiding places. Diomedes woos Cressida. She playfully fends off his advances, but eventually gives him a sleeve that Troilus had given her as a token for later, when she will share her bed with him. Troilus is heartbroken by what he has witnessed. He vows to find Diomedes on the battlefield tomorrow and to kill him. Part of the puzzle of the play, however, is that Troilus never is avenged. Meanwhile, Hector's sister Cassandra has prophecies of doom. She begs her brother to not go into battle, certain that he would die. Sure enough, when Achilles and his men find Hector towards the end of the battle, they stab Hector to death, then tie him to a chariot and drag him along the walls of Troy. And what of Troilus? He loses his horse in this combat to Cressida's lover.The moral of the play may be summed up by a phrase from Thersites: "War and lechery confound all!"

"Troilus and Cressida" depicts a wartime society coming to terms with chasm between necessary self-preservation and their ideals. In a typical tragedy, the hero's beloved, in this case, Cressida, would be a Desdemona-like character, virtuous and falsely accused of wanton ways. In "Troilus and Cressida", Cressida turns out not to be as pure as Troilus imagined her to be. This development is meant to challenge the audience's expectations of tragedy and perspective on female virtue more than it is meant for Troilus' agony to seem like a rite of passage into the fickleness of love and lust. The play, and the author are not interested in whether Troilus avenges himself, perhaps implying that Cressida is not worth fighting for. If the drama had allowed Troilus to carry out his vengeance, Cressida would likely draw parallels to Helen of Troy. Both women, in this play, bring up the issues of value and honor. The structure of the play suggests this is not the coming of age of one man, but the coming of age for a ravaged society.

Between 1734 and 1898, there is no record of the play being performed. The Victorians found the play too sexually explicit and condemned it. There were some documented 1890s German revivals but it was not until the twentieth century that the play was staged in its original form. The play was especially popular after the First World War and even more popular in the 1960s. In recent years, the play has been steadily produced ever year from the 1990s onwards. The Swan had a 1990 production directed by Sam Mendes. In 1999, the Olivier stage at the National Theatre put on a production directed by Trevor Nunn. Ashland's 2001 Oregon Shakespeare Festival performed by the play under the direction of Kenneth Albers. That same year, Peter Hall directed the piece at American Place in New York. BBC also included the tragedy as part of its 1981 Shakespeare Play Series.