Summary

The Prologue sets the scene, describing the background of the Trojan War: Paris has captured the heart of Menelaus' wife, Helen, inciting a war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Scene one opens with a conversation between Troilus and Pandarus. Troilus, a son of King Priam of Troy, is in love with Pandarus' niece, Cressida, and he has secured Pandarus as a matchmaker. Pandarus is a bawdy old flatterer, constantly making sexual puns; he agrees that Cressida is nearly as beautiful as Helen, though he adds that Cressida ought not to continue to stand behind her father, Calchas, who betrayed Troy by defecting to the Greeks. Troilus, meanwhile, is devastated by Pandarus' apparent lack of progress in convincing Cressida to love him in return. Pandarus responds to Troilus' criticism of his matchmaking by pretending to give it up altogether. Troilus gives the play's first soliloquy after Pandarus' exit, saying that both Pandarus and Cressida are difficult to interpret - Pandarus requires almost as much "wooing" (that is, sweet-talking) as Cressida herself - and expressing his ardent wish to be with Cressida. Troilus' famous brother Aeneas interrupts his soliloquy and convinces him to shift his attention to the field of battle. They exit together, setting off to join the fray.

Scene two begins with a conversation between Cressida and her servant Alexander about Ajax, a newly-arrived half-Greek and half-Trojan champion who is fighting on the Greek side. They jokingly suggest that Ajax is full of bluster and short on brains. Pandarus enters and deftly turns the subject to Troilus. Despite his declaration that he will no longer pursue Troilus' suit, Pandarus is still hard at work, comparing Troilus favorably to Troy's greatest champion, Hector. Cressida couldn't disagree more, saying that she finds Troilus totally unfit for comparison to Hector. The day in the battlefield has concluded, and Cressida and Pandarus watch as the Trojan champions parade back into the city. Pandarus provides a commentary on the warriors, praising Hector and Aeneas and assuring Cressida that Troilus will make a grand appearance. Cressida continues to tease her uncle by insulting Troilus. Upon his exit, however, Cressida reveals in a soliloquy that she desperately loves Troilus in return; she has kept this love to herself because she knows that as a woman she will be valued most while she is being wooed, and that her value will diminish significantly once she is "conquered."

Meanwhile, on the other side of Troy's famous walls, the Greek camp is in crisis. The three main strategists of the Greek cause, Agamemnon, Nestor, and Ulysses, each give a speech addressing their difficulties. Agamemnon states that their lack of success is a plot of the gods to find constancy in men; Nestor concurs with Agamemnon. Ulysses' speech takes a different point of view; he states that the reason their effort has been unsuccessful is that there has been mutiny in the ranks. Achilles, the Greeks' greatest warrior, has been stubbornly refusing to partake in the war as a show of his power. Ulysses says that Achilles' temperamental defiance of his superiors has become endemic to the camp as a whole: because he has snubbed his commanders, rank has lost its import amongst the Greeks - a situation which must be remedied if the Greek cause is to prevail. Following Ulysses' speech, which both Agamemnon and Nestor applaud, Aeneas enters to issue a challenge from Hector. This challenge is obviously intended for Achilles alone, though it is ostensibly directed to the Greeks in general. Upon hearing this, Ulysses takes Nestor aside to suggest a solution to the Achilles problem. He says that the Greeks should choose a warrior to answer Hector's challenge with a lottery, but that they should rig the lottery so that Ajax is chosen. They would then have reason to praise the doltish Ajax as the greatest warrior in their camp - a situation that would irk the prideful Achilles so much that he would almost certainly return to battle to prove his superiority.

Analysis

The Prologue, during which a man in armor enters to tell the audience that they're going to skip the "vaunt and firstlings" of the war (in other words, the fighting) is either deliberately absurd - which, given the sardonic tone of much of Troilus and Cressida, is certainly plausible - or, alternatively, a segment that was not written by Shakespeare (many scholars, including Frank Kermode, hold this opinion). Either way, the Prologue draws immediate attention to a key complexity in the play: it is deliberately Homeric to some degree, beginning the story "in media res" (in the middle of things) - an epic convention - while at the same time cultivating a markedly un-Homeric tone. Whereas the ancient poet wrote of gods and heroes in high epic fashion, Troilus and Cressida shows us the flawed, human side of these supposedly god-like men, using Homeric bluster to ironic effect.

True to the promise of the Prologue, the first act of Troilus is short on action. We find ourselves in the midst of two major plotlines - the first, Troilus' pursuit of the beautiful Cressida via her uncle Pandarus; the second, Ulysses' scheme to get Achilles to reenter the Trojan War. These two plots are quite different on the surface, yet both address the delicate balance between domestic and political power that lies at the heart of the play.

Troilus' pursuit of Cressida speaks to the natural human instinct to seek out domestic happiness and security during times of war. The war that embroils his countrymen is less interesting to him than matters of the heart. Ironically, however, the war is a domestic matter, as well: it is a dispute instigated by a cuckolded husband - Menelaus of Greece - whose beautiful wife, Helen, has been taken from him by Paris of Troy. Because these men are both members of royal families, what might have been an insular domestic matter becomes a far-reaching political one. Troilus finds himself in the tricky position of balancing his own domestic welfare (which he sees as tied up in winning Cressida) with that of his brother Paris, (which is tied up in winning the war). By focusing on this subject, Shakespeare complicates the premise of the Trojan War. Why is one beautiful wife - Helen - worth dying and killing for, while another - Cressida, whom Pandarus regularly compares to Helen - is not? What makes one domestic dispute a political issue, and another a private affair?

Shakespeare does not provide a clear answer, and this, perhaps, is his point. The only distinction between one story of unfaithfulness and another is in the purely arbitrary way that each story is perceived. Troilus and Cressida, then, is a play about the manner in which stories are created. In this play, Shakespeare relates a story that held significant import in the domestic language of his time: in Elizabethan England, a "Troilus" was a faithful husband, a "Cressid" was an unfaithful wife, and a "Pandar" was an unprincipled pimp or go-between. He also offers a story (that of Menelaus, Paris, and Helen) that had taken on significant weight as a political reference during his era. He seems to suggest, ultimately, that the distinction between the first story and the second is difficult to determine, as domestic issues are always laden with political elements.

Gender is another significant issue that Shakespeare confronts in Troilus and Cressida. After Troilus has delivered his soliloquy about the Pandarus-Cressida-Troilus triangle, Aeneas asks him why he is not at battle, to which Troilus replies, "womanish it is to be from thence." Of course, since the whole war is being waged because of a domestic conflict, this distinction is problematic. "Womanish" matters, in this case, appear to be matters fit for war. For her part, Cressida is very aware of the way in which her "womanish" status intersects with questions of power. She declares in her soliloquy that she will play coy with Troilus in order to gain leverage; she knows that once she is conquered, she will be rendered powerless. Troilus goes off to prove himself mannishly on the field of battle to support a domestic cause, while Cressida wages her own battle for power in the domestic realm.

Meanwhile, in the Greek camp, Ulysses' speech on "degree", one of the most famous in Troilus and Cressida, offers yet another set of ironies and paradoxes. He declares that the way for the Greeks to win the war is to follow in lockstep the social hierarchy. Yet consider what he himself is doing: he is weaving a plot to win the war his own way. Ulysses has no intention of deferring power to his colleagues Nestor and Agamemnon, both of whom outrank him (one on grounds of age, the other on grounds of military status). His speech on degree, then, is a manipulative performance of sorts; his respect for rank and order, to a great degree, is a smokescreen for his own political machinations.

On both sides of the Trojan War, strategy and deceptiveness abounds. Whether we consider Pandarus' smooth-tongued attempts to peddle his own niece, Cressida's witty reserve for the sake of securing power in a male-dominated world, Agamemnon's torturous grandiloquence, or Ulysses' glib scheming, the question remains: what purpose do all of these machinations serve? Are they merely byproducts of an overblown argument between a jealous husband and an unfaithful wife, or a larger commentary on the political nature of domestic disputes?

Summary

Act Two introduces us to Thersites, an acid-tongued coward of low rank in the Greek army who delights in insulting his superiors. He even trades the foolhardy warrior Ajax colorful insults for brutal blows. The Trojan camp seriously discusses the latest offer from Nestor: the Greeks, it seems, will call off the whole war if the Trojans return Helen. Hector argues that Helen is not worth the amount of blood that has already been shed - and certainly does not merit even more casualties - but Troilus berates him for this opinion, saying that the primary threat is not to Helen's value, but to their city's honor. He reminds his brothers that the conflict began not when Paris took Helen, but when the Greeks took Hersione, a Trojan woman, who was wed to the Greek Telemon. Troilus suggests that if they do not defend their right to avenge Hersione's capture, then the institution upon which their society is based - marriage - will crumble, bringing humanity down with it.

Cassandra, the Trojan princess who is doomed to foretell the future but never to be believed, interrupts Troilus and Hector's debate with baleful moaning about the future of Troy if the Trojans fail to return Helen. Seeing that her please are in vain she exits, and the debate continues. Paris jumps into the argument, declaring that he wishes to wipe off the blot of Helen's abduction by "the honorable keeping of her." Hector, although completely unconvinced by his younger brother's attempts at logic, nevertheless agrees that they cannot simply give Helen up, as Troy's honor is now tied to the outcome of the war.

In the Greek camp, Achilles continues to refuse to fight. Thersites, apparently having impressed Achilles with his foolish railing against Ajax, has defected to Achilles' side. He meets Achilles' good friend and lover, Patroclus, and rails against him as well. Meanwhile, Nestor, Agamemnon, and Ulysses arrive at Achilles' tent to convince the sullen, proud champion to participate in the next day's fighting, but Patroclus curtly dismisses them. Ulysses begins applying his plan to spur Achilles into battle by praising Ajax to the skies. He gets his fellow Greeks to play along, and Ajax is conned into believing that he, not Achilles, is Greece's most valued resource in the war.

Analysis

Two Acts have passed and still, one cannot help but notice, the audience has not borne witness to a single moment of battle between the Greeks and Trojans: the focus has been on debate and domestic issues. The play, in general, seems to spend a great deal of time trying to determine what it is about. The process of argumentation through which this matter is intended to be addressed, however, fails to arrive at clear answers. We saw this failing in the Greek camp scene in Act One, when each of the Greek leaders took a turn at defining the reason for Greece's lack of success; this act features a similarly ambiguous debate between various Trojan leaders.

Both of the two main supporters of the continuation of the war, Troilus and Paris, appear to prioritize honor over reason. They both agree that it is not rational to keep Helen, who has already cost them so many lives, but see the matter as a question of principle. Paris (who can hardly be considered objective, since it is he who wishes to keep Helen most of all) states that Helen is an unrivalled beauty, much prized by all the world, and that it would be damaging to Troy as a whole to lose her. As Priam suggests, however, that is easy for him to say. His tendency to couch his lust in the language of honor makes Paris one of the most unequivocally dishonest characters in Troilus and Cressida.

Troilus' position is more complicated than Paris'. Whereas his brother's alleged arguments for keeping Helen are clearly mendacious, Troilus seems motivated by true principles. He believes that the Greeks upset the foundations of marriage when they abducted Hersione, and that in keeping Helen the Trojans are merely restoring balance. Troilus speaks of honor with a far less forked tongue than Paris. Thus far, he is the purest defender of honor, contending that though Helen may not be worth the lives she has cost, she has given Trojans the opportunity to court honor and glory on the field of battle. The naiveté of this position, however, will come under intense scrutiny in the acts to come.

On the Greek side, the key player in Act Two is Thersites. He is the anti-Troilus: a bilious, fiercely articulate misanthrope. His obsession with whoredom, lust and war pervades his every word. He is an unprincipled, lowborn, scathing opportunist - and believes that the entire world operates as he does, although others use the language of honor and dignity to dress up their depravity. And to tell the truth, Troilus and Cressida offers many examples to support Thersites' claim; from Paris to Pandar to Ulysses to Ajax to Achilles, everyone indeed seems motivated by the same base power games that fascinate Thersites. In short, if Troilus and Cressida is truly as nihilistic a play as it seems, then Thersites is the hollow heart of the play, railing cynically against anything and everything. Ironically, it is his very willingness to say what he thinks that keep him from advancing himself; Thersites is, in his fashion, one of the most honest characters in the play. In this world of secret power struggles and backroom machinations, however, Thersites' outspoken disgust proves to be his undoing.

Summary

After a short hiatus from the romance between our title characters, we find ourselves once again in the company of the smooth-talking Pandarus. He meets with Helen and Paris, both of whom are wholly unconcerned with the brutal realities of the Trojan War and are spending their days dallying with musicians. Pandarus comes to ask Paris to make an excuse to Priam for Troilus' absence from their company the coming night. Paris and Helen both know that the reason for this is Troilus' affair with Cressida, though Pandarus denies this when asked outright. Helen convinces Pandarus to sing them a bawdy song full of double entendres and she and Paris retire, presumably to have sex.

In the interval between Acts One and Three, Pandarus has apparently executed his office well. He has arranged a tryst for Troilus and Cressida in his garden. Both Troilus and Cressida are taciturn at first, in sharp contrast to the glib and bawdy Pandarus, though they settle into their roles as lovers in time. They discuss the nature of love - the difficulty of living up to the lofty oaths that love inspires in lovers, the ardency of their love for each other. Troilus declares that he will be true to his most outrageous and seemingly hyperbolic oaths. Cressida, for her part, spends much time and thought watching her words. The three seal their union by declaring that their names will go down in history: Troilus states that "true as Troilus" will be his heritage; Cressida declares that if she proves untrue, then women will be called "false as Cressid"; Pandarus says that if their union is not permanent, then all who bring false lovers together will be called "Pandars."

Pandarus is not the only one "trading" Cressida; on the other side of the Trojan walls, Cressida's father Calchas is bargaining for his daughter. Agamemnon declares that as payment for Calchas' defection, they will return a captured Trojan prisoner, Antenor, in return for Cressida. Meanwhile, Ulysses' plan to engender jealousy in Achilles is taking shape. He has Agamemnon, Nestor, Menelaus, and Ajax pass by Achilles' tent without paying proper respects, as though they no longer care whether or not he fights. Ulysses then approaches Achilles and remarks in a roundabout way that honor and glory can only survive if they are constantly renewed by action; reputation fades when the glorious rest on their past glories. Ulysses' ploy works, and Achilles sends Patroclus to request that Hector have dinner with him following his challenge with Ajax. Thersites, Patroclus, and Achilles then close Act Three with an impromptu play lampooning Ajax' stupidity.

Analysis

The central scene of Act Three, and quite possibly the central scene of the play, is the tryst in the garden with Troilus, Cressida, and Pandarus. The complexities of this scene have inspired reams of commentary, but one of the chief things to notice about this meeting is how, despite of the intensity of their interaction, Troilus and Cressida's language is always pitched at a philosophical level. For Troilus, contact with Cressida is palpably paradoxical: he has built up Cressida in his imagination as the pinnacle of womanhood; he has worked up a desire for her that consumes his entire imagination. How can the actual moment of contact - or of lovemaking - compare with the unlimited powers of the imagination? Troilus swears that this paradox is no barrier to their love, but Cressida is more cautious. She knows, as a woman, precisely what Troilus suggests - that there is more power in imagined desire than in satisfied desire. As long as she is able to hold off Troilus' suit, she retains her power. Now, she fears that giving in to him means giving up this control. Cressida expresses this fear, in part, by constantly directing her attention to her own language. When she confesses that she always loved Troilus despite her performance to the contrary, she says, "See, we fools! / Why have I blabbed? Who shall be true to us / When we are so unsecret to ourselves?" Cressida sees honesty as the enemy of her power to hold Troilus' interest. Indeed, language itself, insofar as it exposes her vulnerabilities, weakens her in her own eyes. Troilus, on the other hand, professes that her honesty only strengthens his love for her, and that they will strive to be as "simple" and undeceiving to one another as they are able.

Fittingly, the scene ends with a definitional moment. Troilus, Cressida and Pandarus, in turn, declare that they will lend their names to history. As Pandarus puts it: "Let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars!" This would have been the height of irony to Shakespeare's audience, as to them the story of Troilus and Cressida was already well known, and indeed, false women were called Cressids, true men Troiluses, and brokers-between Pandars. (We still call such men panderers in modern English.) Thus the scene - and the play as a whole - is a kind of philosophical "Just So" story, demonstrating how language came to be as it was in Jacobean England.

And language is a slippery business, as we see not only in the Troilus-Cressida-Pandarus scene (and in the subsequent action of that plot) but also in Ulysses' talk with Achilles. Ulysses speech about the mutability of the world's opinion, and the constant need to reaffirm reputation with fresh actions, is, once again, a grand ploy. As in his speech about rank, Ulysses has the gift of appearing to discourse on general subjects when in fact he is simply serving his own ends. One of the ironies of the speech is that while Ulysses appears to rail against those who have forgotten Achilles for Ajax, he is in fact railing against a performance of his own staging. Achilles isn't really forgotten; he just needs to believe that he has been. In truth, the fact that the world appears to have forgotten Achilles is evidence that it hasn't; to the Greeks, it is worth putting on this vast charade just to have him back in battle. Ultimately Ulysses arranges a demonstration of the evils of changeable opinion (which hasn't really been changed) in order to...change Achilles' opinion.

Summary

On the same night that Troilus and Cressida finally consummate their love, Diomedes arrives from the Greek camp to tell Aeneas and the others of their offer to return Antenor in exchange for Cressida. Although Aeneas is loath to part Troilus from his new love, it is agreed that the exchange must be made. Troilus and Cressida, after a long night together at Pandarus' house, finally take leave from one another. While they are out, Aeneas, Diomedes and the others bear the bad news to Pandarus, who shares it with a despairing Cressida.

Troilus, ever true to Troy, determines that Cressida must be given to the Greeks. He meets with Cressida one last time, both to say farewell and to entreat her to be true to him, promising that they will be together in time. Cressida finds his repeated entreaties to "be true" noxious; Troilus explains, saying that she will meet many Greeks skilled in the tricks of courtiers. They swear allegiance and part. As tokens of their oath, Troilus gives Cressida and sleeve and she gives him a glove. Diomedes, who promises in Troilus' sight that he will satisfy his lust for Cressida when she is with him in the Greek camp, rudely interrupts their parting.

In the fields outside of Troy, the Greeks prepare for the great challenge between Ajax and Hector. While they wait, Cressida arrives. Agamemnon, seeing how beautiful Cressida is, declares his kingly right to kiss her. He takes his kiss and the rest of the Greeks follow suit. Cressida trades quips with the Greeks while they kiss her; when Ulysses asks her for a kiss she declines him saucily, for which he bitterly spites her.

Aeneas and Agamemnon then arrange the battle between Hector and Ajax, which begins. The fight ends without a clear victor; Hector declares an end to it on account of the fact that Ajax is half-Trojan and his cousin. Ajax accepts Hector's reason, and they end their battle as friends and retire to a feast in the Greek camp. Hector trades compliments with all of the eminent Greeks until he comes to Achilles. They exchange threats and determine to meet one another in the field of battle the next day. Meanwhile, Troilus asks Ulysses where Calchas' tent is located, leading Ulysses to determine that Troilus is Cressida's lover. Ulysses promises to take Troilus to the tent under cover of darkness that night.

Analysis

Finally, after three acts, a Trojan and a Greek meet on the field of battle. This meeting, however, is absurdly short - only a few passes, almost for ceremony's sake. Then, as in the earlier acts, war gives way to talk. Lots of talk. Hector, Nestor, Agamemnon, and even Ajax partake in sessions of extreme mutual admiration. One can see them making heroes of each other, praising themselves by praising their foes. The process of "heroicizing" is a constant source of fascination for Shakespeare.

Act Four not only brings Trojan and Greek together, it also brings the two strands of the plot - Troilus and Cressida / Ulysses and Achilles - together. The "kissing scene," when Cressida enters the Greek camp and allows the Greeks, whether under duress or not, to kiss her, is infamous. It is one of those moments in Shakespeare that could be played any number of ways. The ambiguity inherent in the situation is heightened by the fact that Cressida is largely silent throughout the scene. This is one of those key scenes - others can be found in The Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus, as well as elsewhere - where the leading woman becomes silent at a moment of high drama, just as she is the center of attention. One might say that Cressida, upon entering the Greek camp, is truly objectified. Her agency is clearly compromised, but how to play that compromise is a matter of much debate.

Claire M. Tylee, in "The Text of Cressida and Every Ticklish Reader: Troilus and Cressida, The Greek Camp Scene," records a number of ways in which the kissing scene has been played. She notes that some critics, such as Joyce Carol Oates, have seen the scene as evidence that the Cressida of legend - the False Cressid - is Shakespeare's Cressida as well, and that these critics tend to vilify Cressida beginning with the kissing scene. Others play the scene more subtly, indicating that Cressida, as a female prisoner of war, has essentially no rights whatsoever; she depends upon the Greeks to protect her, and if she has to use her sexuality to secure protection, she will do so. The Greek camp, in this reading, is no place for the moony-eyed vows of Troilus; it is a place where the threat of rape and death is imminent. The complexities of Cressida's character only increase in the final act of the play.

Summary

Thersites enters with a letter for Achilles. While Achilles reads the missive, Patroclus tries to engage Thersites in banter, only to find the misanthrope even more spiteful than usual towards him (on account of his status as Achilles' "masculine whore"). Achilles, having finished the letter, announces that it is from Queen Hecuba, charging him to fulfill an oath he made to marry the Queen's daughter, Polyxena. Achilles then turns his attention to the feast at hand, which he is holding in his tent. Thersites, alone on the stage, unleashes his usual venomous gall, foremost upon Menelaus.

The Trojans, having imbibed hardily, are escorted from Achilles' tent and back to their city. Meanwhile, as per his promise, Ulysses and Troilus slip away to Calchas' tent, where Diomedes is already heading. Thersites, overhearing Troilus' plan to see his beloved, declares that Cressida is as much a false-hearted "drab" as anyone. He determines to follow after and see the lechery unfold.

At Calchas' tent, Cressida and Diomedes meet while Ulysses, Troilus and Thersites watch. It quickly becomes apparent that there is predetermined business between Diomedes and Cressida. Diomedes desires Cressida to spend the night with him, and though Cressida is not immediately encouraging in that respect, she nevertheless fails to dissuade his affections. Troilus cannot believe his eyes and ears; Ulysses, alarmed that Troilus' grief and rage will betray his presence in the Greek camp, reminds Troilus that he promised not to speak, only to watch. Cressida's flirtatiousness continues; she even gives Diomedes the sleeve that Troilus had given her. In a moment of repentance she snatches it back from him, but then Diomedes takes it from her. He swears that he will wear the sleeve on his helm the following day at battle so that her Trojan lover will be incensed to challenge him. Upon parting, Cressida promises to see him later that night.

To call Troilus devastated is an understatement of his grief. When Cressida goes back into Calchas' house, Troilus declares that he did not see her just now. In an intense display of denial, he separates "Diomed's Cressida" from his own. Troilus thus saves his own love for Cressida while declaring with rancor his hatred for Diomedes, whom he announces he will meet the next day in battle. Aeneas interrupts Troilus to tell him that Hector is already arming himself for the next day's battle. Troilus returns to Troy, and Thersites gets the last word in the scene: "Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery."

Back in Troy, Andromache and Cassandra both attempt to dissuade Hector from taking the field. Andromache has had foreboding dreams, and Cassandra foresees Hector's death. Hector refuses to listen to them, insisting that his honor binds him to take the field. However, when Troilus shows up with blood boiling, Hector tries to talk his younger brother out of suiting up for battle. Troilus defies his brother's advice, just as Hector defies Andromache, Cassandra, and later Priam. As they prepare for the field Pandarus enters with a letter from Cressida, which Troilus scornfully sets aside.

We are then presented with several tableaux from the day's battle. Thersites watches, brimming with cynicism, as Troilus and Diomedes skirmish, until Hector interrupts his voyeurism and Thersites shows his cowardice. Diomedes claims to have bested Troilus in the field and tells his servant to relay this news to Cressida. Meanwhile Agamemnon enters to say that the Trojans are rallying; Nestor comes with a testament to this news, leading a throng of soldiers carrying Patroclus' slain body. He orders the soldiers to bring Patroclus' body to Achilles, to spur him into battle, and also to spur Ajax onto the field.

Ajax enters, and he and Diomedes call for Troilus. Although outnumbered two to one, Troilus does well against the warriors. Meanwhile, inspired by his rage over the death of Patroclus, Achilles goes after Hector. Hector, for his part, sees a Greek with armor that he wants for his own; he chases the Greek offstage. Achilles gathers his troops, the Myrmidons, and declares that they should encircle Hector and slaughter him. Hector reenters with the nifty-armored Greek, now slain, and the Myrmidons jump him. He declares that he is unarmed, which doesn't bother Achilles or his men; they slaughter him nonetheless. Achilles orders the Myrmidons to declare that Achilles alone killed Hector; he decides to drag the slain Trojan through the battlefield behind his horse.

News of Hector's death reaches both the Trojans and the Greeks. Upon hearing about it, Troilus first despairs, then resolves himself to fight the Greeks as brutally as he can and swears to take revenge on the "great-sized coward," Achilles, who slew his brother. Pandarus interrupts this vow, and Troilus dismisses him with a curse. Pandarus remains on stage to deliver the play's final thoughts. He is plagued by symptoms of syphilis, which he alludes to in what must be Shakespeare's most cynical final address to an audience. Pandarus bemoans his fate and the poor reputation of his trade, ever-so-subtly addressing the audience. Thus, with the pathetic diatribe of a diseased man, Shakespeare's play tapers to a close.

Analysis

There is much to discuss with regards to this final act, and none of it is pleasant. The ending is quite eerie, and contributes as much as anything to the widespread feeling that Troilus and Cressida is a pessimistic - even nihilistic - play. The action of the final scenes does not close the play in a definitive fashion, in the manner of the endings of the majority of Shakespeare's tragedies. Compare the relatively tangential action of this play with the ending of Romeo and Juliet, for instance. That play is also about tragic lovers, and ends with the culmination of their tragedy. This play, in contrast, ends with the death of Hector - an important figure, but hardly the hero of the play.

The reason for this off-center ending may have to do with the odd nature of this drama: it is a play about Troilus and Cressida, but even more it is a play about questions of meaning. The real drama of Troilus and Cressida's own relationship, in their few scenes together, rests in their negotiation of what it means to be in love, what it means to desire, what it means to vow - or to break a vow. Cressida's betrayal of Troilus, then, is a betrayal not merely of a single man, but of the idea of meaning itself. When she turns on her lover, honor dies. Thus, the death of honor - and who in this play is honorable if not Hector, the veritable embodiment of fair play - is, on a higher level, quite fitting.

Likewise, the play's limp, grotesque ending, where Pandarus comes out and delivers an abstruse message about pitying one's local whoremaster, is the culmination of the play's cynical emptiness. Pandarus ultimately replaces Hector as the play's mascot, so to speak. Hector's values - honorable, valiant action on the battlefield and prudence off of it - fade and Pandarus' - equivocal glad-handing and, well, pandering - predominate. Indeed, Shakespeare suggests that those who put on plays, "Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade," are much like Pandars: sweet-speaking, people-pleasing go-betweens in a fiction. The end of the play, then, resembles to some extent the end of a visit to a Jacobean whorehouse. The fun is over, the sweet promises are broken, and nothing but hollow guilt, disease, and emptiness remains.

Although there is a general tendency to condemn Cressida, we must not be too quick to do so. In her day, Cressida represented the alleged deceitfulness of all womankind; and to some degree Shakespeare's view of Cressida conforms to the legend. She capsizes under Diomedes' pressure to have sex with him (and Diomedes' pressure isn't much; he seems quite willing to let her alone), and her last words in the play - "Ah, poor our sex! This fault in us I find, / The error of our eye directs our mind" - are damningly misogynistic. But, as we've seen again and again, this is a philosophical play. It's about characters, yes, but more than that it's about questions of meaning and language.

Cressida's quick transformation from loving woman to deceptive betrayer seems to speak to certain elements of Shakespeare's culture. Troilus' declaration that "This is Diomed's Cressid" is, in this light, correct. "Cressida," as a cultural word synonymous with "false woman," is one character; "Cressida," the witty and guarded woman we saw in the first acts of the play, is another. Troilus' moment of denial thus becomes one of the play's major points: Cressida the woman is transformed into Cressid the false: a misogynistic representative of all women.

Of course this is just one way to read the play. There is no getting around the difficulties of Cressida's character in the scene with Diomedes. As in the kissing scene, the meaning varies from performance to performance. This flexibility of meaning - meaning as contingent upon performance - is essential to the play as a whole. Cressida may be a victim in a male-dominated society; she may simply be false - the only sure thing is that she, as a character and as a woman, is open to interpretation. It is in this process of interpretation that Troilus and Cressida gains its life and its resonance.

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