Troilus and Cressida

In Troilus in Cressida, there’s much disorder and chaos that makes it a very unpleasant story to read/watch. One of the central themes of the play is disorder in hierarchal society; this is discussed in Ulysses’ speech (figure out where speech is and quotes). The desire of Paris and Troilus to fight a war purely for the purpose of dominance. Ironically they state that it is in the name of ‘dignity’, but the actions they take are far from honorable. Lechery is defined in this play as the greed for power and sexual indulgence in this play. Theresites makes this observation when he says: “All argument is a whore and a cuckold...Now the dry serpigo on the subject, and war and lechery confound all” (2.3.76-80). The themes of love and war are intertwined…

Nothing is better than to read a story of great battles between two opposing forces, especially if there are from ancient Greece. Great Aeneas was such a selfless and geat warrior compared to Hector of the Trojans who fought to be a loyal defender of his city. This will show how Aeneas is shown to be similar but better then Hector in the way that Virgil made him a mirror image of Hector from the Iliad. Aeneas is a democratic and selfless leader to his people. He demonstrates this when he…

the hard and soft, seem all affined and kin” (I:III: 23-25). This statement signifies the fact that without order, everyone, even complete opposites, would be equal. This would create chaos, which is another main idea in the play, as without order there is chaos. He repeats this idea through the use of various contrasts, further adding to the high importance that order plays in the world. Furthermore, by saying “Distinction…lies rich in virtue and unmingled,” (I:III: 27) Shakespeare is further…

Perception and Interpretation in the Narrative of Troilus and Criseyde In his extended analysis of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Chauncey Wood notes that “Perhaps more than any other motif in the poem, the idea of blindness is the key to unlocking the tone of the work.” The poem continually foregrounds “eyen” as a malleable symbol that encompasses both physical and metaphorical sight and perception – and the absence of these faculties – in the narrator and the characters he portrays.…

Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous Middle English poem, Troilus and Criseyde, relays a calamitous love story set during the Trojan War. Nearly a century later, Robert Henryson, ‘Scottish Chaucerian’, authored his own poetic continuation of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde entitled, The Testament of Cresseid. Although the two highly expressive pieces of poetry are inclusive of and are remarking on consistent characters, Chaucer and Henryson could not have composed two more vastly contrasting representations…

Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio both use frame stories to get a message across through their writing. Money is the root of all evil is a theme seen in “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Chaucer, and people make great sacrifices for the ones they love is a theme in “Federigo’s Falcon” by Boccaccio. These two selections contrast with each other because the theme in “The Pardoner’s Tale” shows that people act selfishly out of greed while the theme of “Federigo’s Falcon” shows that people act…

comparing his niece, Cressida, to Helen and usually naming Cressida the better of the two. “Because she 's kin to me, therefore she 's not so fair/as Helen: an she were/not kin to me, she would be as/fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday” (1.2, lines 74-76). This statement puts Helen and Cressida on the same level so that Troilus is enticed by Cressida’s great value, a value so high she is rival to Helen. Pandarus compares his niece to other women, as well, usually comparing their positive…

Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. Yet, again a tragic love story that is still widely popular in the 21st century. Chaucer is one of the first authors to use the concept of courtly love as the main focus in his storyline. Generally, the relevance of this topic for me is the ridiculousness and exaggeration of love during the medieval times. Usually, love…

The design of the original theatre resembled a mix of traditions. First of all, the name drew attention to Roman theatre tradition because before it was used for atlases, not playhouses (Gurr). Secondly, the shape bore resemblance to the gatherings of crowds in a circle around the actors when performing in a market. All of the actors had previously been trained in this fashion. Finally, the Globe opened in 1599. A huge success, the Globe thrived for 14 years. During those fourteen years,…

ends well, was included in the First Flolio 1623 with the tag of “Comedy” but, later readers and critics found it a specimen of the Shakespearian “Problem Plays”. “It was overwhelmingly judged as a failed comedy and, as if to stress the distinctiveness of its failure, labeled as a “problem play” or “problem comedy,” terminology which originated with F. S. Boas in 1896” (Gray Waller). The image of this newly filed work in the Seventeenth century gave it the title of the “Shakespearian Comedies”.…