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When does Troilus and Cressida take place?
Troilus and Cressida takes place during the Trojan War, a legendary conflict said to have occurred in the twelfth or thirteenth century BCE. This war was famously the subject of Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad, which forms one of the key sources for Shakespeare. An armed soldier sets the scene in the play’s prologue, explaining the geography of the conflict while also noting that “our play / Leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings” (Prol.26–27). In this way, and much like Homer’s epic, the action of Troilus and Cressida takes place years into the conflict.
Why does Ulysses ensure Ajax is chosen to fight Hector?
Ulysses uses Ajax as part of his plan to manipulate Achilles into rejoining the war. He knows that Achilles is the strongest Greek warrior, and that he’s the most likely candidate to defeat Hector in a duel. However, Achilles’s pride in being the best warrior also presents Ulysses with an opportunity. He therefore concocts a plan with Nestor to create a lottery for selecting who will fight Hector, but they rig the lottery so that Ajax will be chosen. Ulysses anticipates that Achilles will be enraged that this strong yet “beef-witted” (2.3.13) warrior should be chosen over him, and he hopes his rage will propel Achilles back into the fight.
Why is Cressida taken to the Greek camp?
Cressida is taken to the Greek camp in exchange for a Trojan soldier named Antenor, whom the Greeks have captured. This exchange is brokered by Cressida’s father, Calchas, who had defected to the Greek side after having a vision of Troy’s fall. He left Cressida behind in Troy, but he uses the occasion of Antenor’s capture as an opportunity to be reunited with his daughter. In a bit of powerful dramatic irony, Shakespeare has the scene where her exchange is discussed come immediately after the scene where Cressida repeatedly pledges her fidelity to Troilus. Her imminent transfer to the Greek camp foreshadows the act of infidelity that audiences familiar with the play’s subject already know is coming.
Why does Achilles rejoin the battle?
Despite Ulysses’s attempt to manipulate Achilles into rejoining the battle by selecting Ajax for the duel with Hector, the plan doesn’t quite work. Achilles does express his anger at being overlooked for a job for which he’s obviously most qualified. However, this anger isn’t yet enough to propel him back into the fight. It isn’t until Hector kills his best friend and lover Patroclus that Achilles finally has sufficient cause to rearm himself and join the fray. It’s notable that, in a play where women are traded as spoils of a war that was itself instigated by the “theft” of a woman, it’s the death of a man that inspires Achilles to action.
Does Troilus die in Troilus and Cressida?
Troilus does not die at the end of Troilus and Cressida, a fact that contributes to the difficulty scholars have had in categorizing the play. Typically, plays that end with all the key characters surviving are considered “comedies,” whereas “tragedies” conventionally end with the demise of some or all the major characters. This play ends with the death of Hector, which casts a tragic pall over the final scenes, but all other major characters survive. And yet, their survival doesn’t guarantee anything like the “happy ending” usually associated with comedies. After all, Troilus is still suffering from Cressida’s betrayal, and he has failed to avenge himself against Diomedes. Troilus’s survival makes the play into something like a “dark romance.”
