"Troillus and Cressida"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Shakespeare's play "Troilus and Cressida" and analyzes how the play that challenges our preconceived notions of masculinity. Specifically, the paper looks at how the men in the play seem to reach their masculinity through effeminate imagery and how the portrayed uselessness of armor displays the unfilled masculine desires of the men. The paper contends that Shakespeare shapes the source of masculinity in a very different version from contemporary society by placing it in the bodies of the other sex.

From the Paper:

"The meeting of the two camps for the battle of Ajax and Hector is certainly one of the more interesting scenes of Troilus and Cressida. However, the real confrontation is between Achilles and Hector, who meet unarmed for the first time in the play. Achilles draws his worth from the gaze of others, feeling undone when the Greeks do not look upon him, and energy when they do. He must also believe in this power in his own gaze and he desires to look upon his enemy to settle himself. He says, "My mind is troubled like a fountain stirred,/ And I myself see not the bottom of it" (3.3.302-3303), telling readers that if he is unable to look upon his enemy, he is unable to clear up his mental faculties. Perhaps explaining why he is called womanish on several occasions. Patroculus, who lacks a self-proclaimed stomach for war even refers to Achilles as womanish for not arming himself and fighting. Shakespeare is disclosing that an unarmed knight is like an effeminate man. "

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