Troïlus et Cressida

We are at Troy, and the war is going nowhere from the Greek point of view. The Trojans are openly reviewing the idea that Helen is worth the trouble. The action is reviewed constantly by Thersites, an obvious draftee, not greatly given to any causes but his own survival, and the motivations of both sides are less than heroic. Cressida, is the beloved of Troilus, but with considerable encouragement, transfers her affections, and her body, to the care of Diomedes one of the Greek heroes. This is Shakespeare's most obviously anti-war play. ( )

Based on George Chapman’s translation of the Iliad and on 15th-century accounts of the Trojan War by John Lydgate and William Caxton, Troilus and Cressida is an often cynical exploration of the causes of strife between and within the Greek and Trojan armies—the betrayal of love, the absence of heroism, and the emptiness of honour. The play was also influenced by Geoffrey Chaucer’s love poem Troilus and Criseyde, although Shakespeare’s treatment of the lovers and his attitude toward their dilemma is in sharp contrast to Chaucer’s.

Cressida, a Trojan woman whose father has defected to the Greeks, pledges her love to Troilus, one of King Priam’s sons. However, when her father demands her presence in the Greek camp, she reluctantly accepts the attentions of Diomedes, the Greek officer who has been sent to escort her to the Greek side. Given her situation in an enemy camp and being an attractive woman among sex-starved warriors, she has few choices. The love between Troilus and Cressida, begun on such a hopeful note, is at last overwhelmed by the circumstances of war that they cannot control. Meanwhile, the war itself is presented in all its seamy aspects, since it is at bottom a senseless war fought over the possession of Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta but now the mistress of the Trojan prince Paris. Their one scene together presents Helen and Paris as vapid and self-centred. Other figures fare no less well. The legendary Greek hero Achilles is depicted as petulant and greedy for honour, so much so that he brutally massacres the great Hector when that warrior is unarmed. Hector, for his part, is at once the wisest of the Trojans and a captive of his own sense of honour that obliges him to go into battle when his wife and family all warn him of ominous prognostications. The Greek general Agamemnon is given to long-winded speeches; so is old Nestor. Ulysses, the most astute of the Greek generals, is right-minded about many things but also cynical and calculating. Ajax, another Greek officer, is an oaf, easily put upon by his colleagues. Thersites, a deformed Greek, comments wryly on the actions of the other characters, while Pandarus, the bawdy go-between of the lovers, enjoys watching their degradation. The drama ends on a note of complete moral and political disintegration. ( )

One of the strengths of Troilus and Cressida is that, because everyone knows about the Trojan War and the main players in it, the events of this play really do feel like a little snapshot from a much larger history. While the tragedy of our titular couple is not as perfectly crafted as those of Shakespeare's "great" tragedies, it gains a special wrenching quality from being so random and incidental. Troilus and Cressida are torn apart, not just because of the events of the play, but because the war churns on, dragging everyone with it. This story focuses on the petty quibbles of soldiers, the beaten, mocking servant, the lecherous uncle, the distrustful husband, the warrior fighting dirty-- this Trojan War is grimier than you've ever seen it, and any hero in it is killed or corrupted before the end. Diseases, indeed. ( )

MBB-6

2019
https://www.librarything.com/topic/306026#6880301 ( )