Abstract This paper examines the play, "Troilus and Cressida," as a critique on the mythology of the Trojan War and as a larger comment on the problems of human desire and self-centered actions. There are three kinds of reasoning offered by three different characters, all of which make claims to a method for judgement, a method for values and as a rationale for acting. Shakespeare then portrays each character in contradiction, acting in self-serving ways, thus prolonging the war, trapped in a cycle of unresolvable issues that are based on the conflicts of human motivation.
Abstract 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. "
Abstract This paper analyzes and compares the language, tone, character, and plot of 'Troilus and Cressida' and of 'King Lear'. The paper examines Ulysses' "Degree" speech and explains its relevance to Act 1 of Shakespeare's "King Lear" and particularly to the relationship of Lear with his three daughters.
From the Paper "Ulysses? speech in Troilus and Cressida is Shakespeare at his most political. It echoes the concerns of King Lear's Act 1 whilst hinting at the writers personal beliefs. In this way, the speech accentuates Lear's mistakes, while prophesising his ultimate, tragic fate. Ulysses takes the role of a political philosopher, diagnosing the ills of the Greek army. He describes the "hollow Grecian tents", tracing it all to the neglect of the importance of "degree" ? ignoring the glue that holds society together."
Abstract This paper discusses the way gender is used in "Troilus and Criseyde" by Geoffrey Chaucer, with reference to the way John Lydgate raises Chaucer in "Troy Book". It notes how Cressida is depicted as manipulative and self-serving, while Troilus is the victim who really loves her and who is betrayed by her when she shifts her love to the Greek Diomede and leaves Troilus to be killed.
From the Paper "The story of Troilus and Cressida has been told from various points of view in Homer, Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, and others. Chaucer's version of Troilus and Criseyde presents the story of the siege of Troy and events surrounding it through characters who very much reflect the ideas and attitudes of his own time, with the main characters being two young people who embody the traits of the Middle Ages. These traits include ideas about gender, based on the gender stereotypes of the day, which serve as defining characteristics for the characters and which explain many of their motivations for these characters. In the Troy Book of John Lydgate, the poet offers a Chaucerian work that gives more power to ideals than to real people and that treats gender as one aspect of tradition. Karl Federn describes the views of women that prevailed in the Middle Ages and discusses their sources."
Abstract The writer of this paper presents a detailed discussion about the way different manipulators are treated in the works of William Shakespeare depending on the style of the work. The writer explored several characters in tragedies and comedies written by Shakespeare -including "All's Well That Ends Well" and "Troilus" - and takes the reader on a journey of discovery regarding the acceptance or rejection of manipulators in the works.
From the Paper "If one studies the works of Shakespeare one will see that there is a connection between manipulation and comedies. The connection is one that is subtle yet obvious once discovered. A manipulation is really nothing more than getting someone to do what one wants done, and in a life setting this can be comedic. The connection between manipulation and comedy is similar in that they are really both manipulations. Comedies are written in such a way that the audience is manipulated into accepting manipulation as funny and acceptable. This in and of itself is a form of manipulation and the audience is the target for the author. It is such a subtle connection that the audience often does not recognize it until they stop and realize that they accepted events and actions in the comedy that they would have found repulsive of worthy of revenge in any other setting."
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts the portrayal of the Trojan War in Homer's epic "The Iliad," and Shakespeare's version of the Trojan War in his drama ?Troilus and Cressida." The author discusses the different lessons that both authors felt could be drawn from this war. In Shakespeare's case, his distaste for war is reflected in his opinion that the war was fought for no reason at all and as a result of his views has always campaigned against the "myth," as he sees it, of the Trojan War. Homer on the other hand feel felt that the War was fought for justifiable reasons and its outcome is important. These two opposing views are discussed throughout the paper.
From the Paper "At the end of Shakespeare's play, a character not present in Homer's text named Pandarus, who has helped the young lovers of the title have an illicit tryst, leers at the audience that he will bequeath to the audience his diseases, presumably of the flesh. War does not elevate the morals of men and women; it only corrupts them and rots at them. Unlike Homer, Shakespeare stresses that rather than nobility, the reasons for even supposedly the greatest of all wars was in lust and human irrationality. Rather than praising Odysseus (or Ulysses, as Shakespeare calls him in the text), Shakespeare makes the character's statement that the heavens are ordered and ?observe degree, priority, and place,? in war become absurd. (1.3.86)"
Abstract Shakespeare composed his plays, including the ones discussed in this essay, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England from 1558 to 1603, and during the early part of the reign of her cousin, James VI of Scotland, who took England's throne as James I after Elizabeth's death in 1603. This paper shows that records of Shakespeare's plays first appeared in 1594, when the theaters reopened following the passing of an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague, which had closed them for 21 months. This paper focuses on the events of Shakespeare's life during the years 1602?1611, a period in which Shakespeare wrote prolifically and penned such plays as "Troilus and Cressida", "All's Well That Ends Well", "Antony and Cleopatra", "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest".
From the Paper "While Southampton had been condemned to death in London Tower for his involvement in the rebellious scheme, he fortunately received a reprieve. However, the event left Shakespeare deeply shaken and ended his involvement with Southampton and his circle of friends. Furthermore, in 1607, Shakespeare's mother died. Surely, such death and chaos as he saw in those years played a crucial role in the switch to a darker, more tragic tone in his works.
Antony and Cleopatra was written around 1606 and deals with a different type of love than that discussed in Shakespeare's earlier tragedies, namely the passions of the Roman general Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra."
Abstract This paper discusses the theme of spatial order in Wallace Stevens' poem "Anecdote of the Jar" and in lines 87-115 in Act I Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's play "Troilus and Cressida." Tone, diction, and point of view are examined as well.
Abstract A cuckold is a man whose wife is sleeping with another man, and the cuckold in Elizabethan drama is a staple element, suggesting not just the concerns that the Elizabethans had about the subject, but also the way they relieved tension over it by making the cuckold a figure of fun. This paper examines how William Shakespeare often used the cuckold as a character in his plays, although hints of cuckoldry are even more common in his works, with characters fearful that they may be cuckolded or with wayward wives and unmarried men making jokes about it. The paper discusses, in particular, three of Shakespeare's plays: "Troilus and Cressida", "Twelfth Night", and "As You Like It".
From the Paper "Rosalind in As You Like It states that no man has ever died for love in the six thousand years of history that passed before her time. Yet, she still mentions the fate of that famous cuckold Troilus: "Troilus had his brains dashed out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of love" (IV.i.92-94). The cuckold in this passage is presented as both betrayed and yet somehow elevated by being the one to remain true, while the woman who has betrayed him is not even mentioned. The idea of the cuckold is that he is a dupe. But he could as easily be a true man who has been true to the wrong woman. The image of the man with horns as a cuckold reflects the meaning of the word itself, for it means ?furnished with horns.? Characters in Elizabethan drama often speak of horns or make the sign of horns to indicated a cuckold and to suggest in this manner an association with the beasts and perhaps with the devil."
