Troilus and Cressida – A. J. Drake's Shakespeare Site

Questions on
Shakespeare’s Comedies

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida. Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies, 3rd ed. 812-89.)

ACT 1

Including the Prologue

1. In the Prologue, how does the speaker address the Homeric context of the play’s action? What attitude towards this context does he strike up? How, for example, does he characterize the argument between the Greeks and the Trojans, and what does he suggest about the Greek princes and about Helen’s Trojan lover, Paris? Why should it matter that the Prologue speaker is dressed as a soldier and not as a writer or author?

2. In Act 1, Scene 1, what sets Troilus apart from the play’s heroic, martial context? That is, how does he describe his state of mind at this early stage? What does he say about Helen, whose abduction is the supposed cause of the war with Troy? Moreover, anachronistic as the reference is, how does Troilus set himself up as something like a “Petrarchan lover”?

3. In Act 1, Scene 1, what is Troilus’s opinion of Pandarus and his motives and manner of helping him woo Cressida? Why is Troilus impatient with Pandarus, even though the latter seems to be trying to help him win the love of Cressida? How does Pandarus respond to Troilus’s annoyance with him?

4. In Act 1, Scene 2, Cressida speaks first with an unidentified Trojan man and then with Pandarus about the qualities of the Trojan hero Hector. What is to be learned about Hector’s ethos from this conversation? Why is Hector in such a troubled state of mind at present? What seems to matter most to him, to judge from the report given by Cressida and her conversation partners?

5. In Act 1, Scene 2, Pandarus praises the wit and martial qualities of his nephew Troilus, and Cressida responds wryly. When the two review the Trojan troops passing below them, how does Pandarus compare Troilus to the celebrated warriors filing by? What are a few of the “comebacks” that Cressida offers? From this conversation, what image of Cressida begins to emerge? When she is alone briefly at the end of Scene 2, what does she reveal about her true estimation of Troilus?

6. In Act 1, Scene 3, King Agamemnon, head of the Greek host, address his chief warriors. As the seventh year of war grinds on, how does he assess the current situation of the Greek cause, which is of course to defeat Troy and repatriate Helen from her Trojan lover Paris, thereby redeeming Menelaus (Helen’s royal husband) from shame? How does he recast the challenges that his armies have faced up to this point? How, too, does Nestor effectively second Agamemnon in this recasting?

7. In Act 1, Scene 3, Ulysses (Homer’s “Odysseus”) takes his turn as an orator. Consider the two relevant passages (74-136, 141-83, 196-209) he speaks as one rhetorical performance—i.e. as a short speech calculated to persuade an audience. How does Ulysses lead up to stating what he believes is the cause of the Greeks’ malaise? Why, according to Ulysses, are the master warrior Achilles’s attitude and conduct in this seventh year of the war a disaster for the Greek army, and what can be done? How does Ulysses avoid angering Agamemnon even though he is criticizing him, too, in the process of criticizing Achilles and Patroclus?

8. In Act 1, Scene 3, the Trojan prince Aeneas meets Agamemnon and his chieftains to deliver Hector’s challenge to any Greek warrior who dares meet him in single combat. What seems to be Hector’s motivation for this challenge? What are the terms of the challenge? How does Agamemnon reply to it?

9. In Act 1, Scene 3, when the Trojan Aeneas and the Greek captains have left the scene, only the wily strategists Ulysses and Nestor remain behind. How do they evaluate the significance of Hector’s challenge? Why do they want Ajax to take up Hector’s challenge rather than the man Hector is clearly aiming to provoke, Achilles? Why, according to Ulysses, would it be a bad idea to let Achilles be the Greeks’ champion in this single combat, whether he wins or loses?

ACT 2

10. In Act 2, Scene 1 describe the (mostly) verbal sparring match between Thersites and the Greek warrior Ajax. Since this is our first experience of Thersites—a character who appears in Book 2 of Homer’s Iliad, but also one who would not be out of place in the harsh, satirical comedies of the later Greek comic playwright Aristophanes—what kind of insults does he hurl against Ajax to humiliate him? In return, with what terms or phrases does Ajax insult Thersites back? In what sense does Thersites perhaps “win”?

11. In Act 2, Scene 1, Achilles and Patroclus enter the picture even as Thersites and Ajax continue to savage each other. How do the attitudes of Achilles and Patroclus toward Thersites differ from that of Ajax? What might account for the difference? Moreover, what attitude does Achilles present regarding Hector’s challenge, which he in part recites for the benefit of the apparently illiterate Ajax?

12. In Act 2, Scene 2, when the question of turning Helen over to the Greeks and thereby ending the war comes up, what argument between Troilus (and Paris) and Hector (and Helenus) ensues? Why does Troilus think it would be wrong to give in, and why does Hector think otherwise? Why does he nevertheless come round to Troilus’s side? How, if at all, does this exchange of opinions affect your view of Hector?

13. In Act 2, Scene 3, Thersites continues to rail at the Greeks generally, Achilles and Patroclus in particular, and what he considers the sordid cause of the war against Troy. On what grounds does he denounce these two most famous of Greek warriors, and why does he so roundly condemn the war? What accounts for Thersites’s frequent mentions of skin diseases and venereal diseases such as syphilis?

14. In Act 2, Scene 3, what is the purpose of King Agamemnon’s visit to Achilles—what does he evidently hope to accomplish? What happens when he sends in the wily Ulysses to speak with Achilles, and then when Ulysses gets involved in managing the vain, temperamental and none too bright (but powerful) Ajax? Ultimately, what are Agamemnon and Ulysses up to in this scene?

ACT 3

15. In Act 3, Scene 1, Pandarus banters with a servant of Lord Paris, Helen’s lover. What purpose do the servant’s witty and sometimes strangely anachronistic phrases (as noted in the Norton edition’s glosses) serve? What seems to be the function of this scene, placed as it is before Pandarus’s equally witty, edgy conversation with Paris and Helen?

16. In Act 3, Scene 1, Pandarus has a conversation with Paris and Helen, fabled characters whose actions lie at the heart of the Trojan War. What do they apparently want from Pandarus? In what sense does their way of talking to Pandarus and then (after Paris leaves) about Hector prove revealing about their attitude toward the War itself? What is unsettling about this portrayal of so important a pair of lovers?

17. In Act 3, Scene 2, as Troilus awaits his long-sought encounter with Cressida, what fear with respect to love most troubles him? When they meet in the encouraging presence of Uncle Pandarus, how does Cressida respond to Troilus, and what anxiety does she betray as the conversation continues? What declarations do the two lovers make, especially toward the end of their meeting? On the whole, how much romantic idealism is there in their talk, and how much realism?

18. In Act 3, Scene 3, the one-time Trojan priest Calchas, who has defected to the Greeks, calls in a favor—he wants his daughter Cressida returned to him in the Greek camp in exchange for the captured Trojan Prince Antenor. Ulysses, always clever, offers a plan for getting Achilles involved again in the war against Troy. What is his plan, and how does he follow up on it in his encounter with Achilles? How does he get under Achilles’s skin—for example, what does Ulysses say to Achilles about the basis of military reputation? What effect does this strategy have upon Achilles, once Ulysses leaves him alone with Patroclus?

19. In Act 3, Scene 3, Thersites enters just after Achilles’s conversation with Ulysses and then with Patroclus. What does Thersites report about Ajax, and what is the significance of Thersites and Patroclus’s acting-out of a little skit that Thersites calls “the pageant of Ajax”? What impact does Thersites’s report and then the “pageant” have on Achilles?

ACT 4

20. In Act 4, Scene 1, the Trojan Aeneas and the Greek Diomedes engage in a strangely civil boasting contest. How does Paris deal with this exchange of views between the two famous warriors on opposite sides? What is the purpose of the embassy that the Greeks and Trojans are carrying out? What is Diomedes’s attitude toward Helen, over whose flight to Troy the war has for the last seven years been fought?

21. In Act 4, Scene 2a, Troilus and Cressida lightly play the roles of chivalric lovers cursing the coming of the dawn. Then, even as Pandarus is teasing Cressida over the loss of her virginity, Aeneas arrives and brings the news that she is to be exchanged for the Trojan captive Antenor. In Scenes 2b and 3, how do Troilus and Cressida, respectively, react to this most unwelcome of messages? Which of the two lovers takes the news hardest, or responds most passionately?

22. In Act 4, Scene 4, Troilus himself hands over Cressida to the Greek warrior Diomedes, but first there is a brief but intense “leave-taking” between the two lovers. Why does Troilus keep telling Cressida to “be … true of heart,” and why does Cressida take this admonition as a slight? What explanation does he offer to try to redeem these remarks—what does he admit to worrying about? Finally, how do Troilus and Diomedes undercut the civil tone of the handover, each man supplying himself with matter for a quarrel on the battlefield?

23. In Act 4, Scene 5a, how does Cressida conduct herself when she is introduced to the Greek warriors halfway between Troy and the Greek camp? How do the Greeks treat her, and how does she respond? To answer, you might consider how, if you were the play’s director, you would shape this scene, and why so? (I.e. would you keep things friendly and civil, or would you portray the men as behaving lasciviously toward their Trojan prize? Should Cressida’s behavior seem forced out of fear, or should it seem genuinely witty and flirtatious?) How does Ulysses assess Cressida’s character? Does his assessment seem fair, or does it seem excessive or flat wrong? Either way, why?

24. In Act 4, Scene 5a, Hector is about to begin his challenge match with Ajax. Even before the fighting begins, what complication, according to Aeneas, arises by the pitting of these particular men against each other? In responding to Agamemnon, how does Ulysses sum up what he has heard of Troilus? Where did he get his information, and on its basis, what seem to be the Trojan expectations for the young man?

25. In Act 4, Scene 5b, how does the contest go? How do the Greek and Trojan warriors behave toward one another after it is concluded? Does all the talk of sincerity and “honor” seem uplifting or in some sense disturbing, given the circumstances? Explain. Finally, what gesture does Achilles make that shatters the prevailing good mood on both sides? At this point, what judgment can you offer regarding the relative worth of the legendary warriors Hector and Achilles, at least as this play casts them?

ACT 5

26. In Act 5, Scene 1, Thersites again targets our favorite Greek warriors, this time mainly Achilles and Patroclus. It’s easy just to call Thersites a parasite, but in what sense might he and his opponents be said to need one another? Overall, how would you characterize Thersites’s role and significance up to this point in the play? How, for example, does he reflect upon both the Trojan War and its supposed cause, sex (in the sense of desire and the physical act itself)?

27. In Act 5, Scene 2, Troilus is guided by Ulysses to the tent where he may see how Cressida bears herself in the presence of the Greek Diomedes. What happens between her and her Greek master Diomedes? To what extent does Cressida resist his advances, and at what point does she give in to his sexual demands? How does she justify this capitulation to herself? How, in this and the next scene (Act 5, Scene 3), does Troilus deal with what he has witnessed?

28. In Act 5, Scene 3, Hector and Troilus debate the value of chivalry and even pity in war. What has sparked this debate, and what position does each man take? Might this discussion—along with one last appearance by King Priam and the unhappy prophetess Cassandra—presage the death of Hector later in the fifth act? If so, why?

29. In Acts 5, Scenes 4 and 8, Thersites appears for the final time in Troilus and Cressida. With Ajax proudly hanging back and the Greek army in a seemingly anarchic state, Thersites plans to enjoy the pageant of bloody foolery, but things take an ominous turn for him. What are his thoughts at this late point? Why do the Trojans Hector (in Scene 4) and then Margarelon (in Scene 8) allow him to live instead of cutting him down, as they would any other cornered Trojan fighter? What impact does his behavior have on your view of the other fighting that occurs around these scenes?

30. In Act 5, Scene 5, we learn that Hector has killed Patroclus, throwing the Greek camp into dismay, but of course his friend’s death at last brings Achilles into the battle. What happens in the initial fighting between Hector and Achilles—an event awaited for much of the Trojan War? Then, in Act 5, Scene 7 and Scene 9, by what dishonest means does Achilles defeat Hector? Shakespeare’s Achilles is clearly not of the same caliber as the one we meet in Homer’s Iliad—what principle seems to motivate him in these scenes?

31. By Act 5, Scenes 9-11, Hector has been slain by Achilles, and the Trojans are left to register the grievous loss. Troilus strikes Pandarus and bids him be gone, and the latter complains of his sufferings from venereal disease and his ill usage by Troilus. To what extent does Pandarus’s final speech explain his motivation in acting as a bawd or go-between for his nephew Troilus and the Trojan maiden Cressida? How much blame, if any, would you assign to him for Troilus’s unhappiness by the play’s end? On the whole, how would you assess Pandarus’s significance in Troilus and Cressida?

32. General question. By the end of the play, would you say that Troilus has become thoroughly disillusioned and cynical (like Pandarus), or that he has transferred his quest for an object to idealize to the war? Explain your rationale by referring to Troilus’ words and actions in the concluding scenes.

33. General question. If you are familiar with Homer’s Iliad, how would you compare Shakespeare’s presentation of the Trojan War and some of its key warriors with Homer’s presentation of the War and its heroes? Is Shakespeare’s casting of the Trojans and Greeks radically different from what we find in Homer, or is the Elizabethan-Jacobean playwright picking up on certain qualities that he may have encountered in Homer’s Iliad as translated by George Chapman? Explain.

Edition. Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors. The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies + Digital Edition. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93861-6.