Troilus and Cressida Warfare Quotes

Now this is interesting, Shmooperinos. The opening lines of the Prologue sound pretty grand and epic: "orgulous" (a.k.a. proud) princes of "high blood" (a.k.a. noble lineage) have sent a bunch of ships filled with the "ministers" (a.k.a. soldiers) of "cruel war" to Troy. The language makes the Trojan War seem, well, grand and important, don't you think? But then Shakespeare does something odd. He says the Greeks have sent "sixty and nine" ships to Troy. Huh?! Sixty-nine ships? That's it? Over 1100 ships are launched in Homer's Iliad, and in Christopher Marlowe's famous play, Dr. Faustus, it was more like 1000. Why the heck is Shakespeare low-balling this number? Well, here's a thought. Maybe the play is suggesting that the Trojan War isn't as epic as everyone says it is. When the Prologue deflates the number of ships launched to Troy, it anticipates the way the entire play will deflate the importance of the Trojan War and the so-called "heroes" who fought in it.

From the very beginning, this play tells us that the Trojan War is fought for one reason and one reason only: Paris ran off with "Menelaus' queen" and won't give her back—"and that's the quarrel." Wow. The entire war boils down to sexual relationships? That's quite a statement, don't you think? This idea surfaces over and over again throughout the play, so keep your eyes peeled.

Uh, oh. The Prologue seems to be warning us that we might "find fault" with all this Trojan War business. More importantly, when it generalizes about the "chance of war," it seems to suggest that nothing good ever really comes from any military conflict, regardless of its origins, time, or place. Maybe that's why so many modern productions of the play change the setting from Troy to, say, WWI  or Iraq. The point seems to be that, when it comes down to it, all wars are alike.

Someone is always drawing our attention to the relationship between warfare and love in this play. Here, Troilus compares the "cruel battle" within his heart (a.k.a. his love for Cressida) to the "war" that's being fought outside the walls of Troy. Isn't that poetic?

Troilus is pretty sarcastic when he says that Helen must be "fair" (a.k.a. hot) if so many guys are willing to spill their blood for her. Here, he insists that the Trojan War isn't being fought for a good enough reason—fighting over a woman is "too starved a subject for his sword." What's interesting is that, later in the play, Troilus argues that fighting for Helen is a matter of Trojan "honor." Plus, after Cressida betrays him, Troilus is more than willing to spill blood over a personal relationship. What's up with that?

Nestor's message to the Trojans is a stark reminder of the consequences of the Trojan War—the loss of countless lives, honor, time, money, and so on. We're also interested in how Nestor describes war as a "cormorant" (a.k.a. a giant bird that goes around devouring everything in sight). Something tells us that we're not in Muppet territory.

Hang on a tic. In a previous passage, didn't we just hear Troilus say that Helen wasn't worth fighting for? Now he's arguing the Trojans should keep fighting? Okay. Troilus is a bit of a hypocrite. (So is just about everyone else in this play.) But what's even more interesting to us is the fact that Troilus says Helen is a "theme of honor." Translation: Helen is just an excuse for the Trojans to keep fighting in order to gain "honor and renown" by carrying out "valiant and magnanimous deeds" on the battlefield. In other words, Helen is really beside the point. Gee, women can't do anything right in this play.

Thersites is pretty crude when he reduces the origins of the Trojan war to "a cuckold and a whore" (Menelaus and Helen). And, although nobody else in this play is quite as vile and nasty and Thersites, this is an argument we hear over and over throughout Troilus and Cressida. We're starting to wonder if Thersites is supposed to be the play's official spokesperson.

When Thersites describes the man-to-man combat between Paris ("the cuckold maker") and Menelaus ("the cuckold"), he describes the action as though it's a bull-baiting contest. Bull-baiting was an Elizabethan blood sport that involved setting a pack of dogs on a chained up bull. (Kind of like bear-baiting, except … with a bull.) So, basically, Thersites reduces the epic battlefield to a bull-baiting arena. In the process, he reduces the actions of so-called heroic warriors to the actions of, well, animals.

Here, Hector reduces the war to a brawl between animals, although unintentionally. When he chases a soldier who tries to run away from him, he says he'll "hunt" the guy like an animal, as if killing another soldier is some kind of sport. This idea of war as a game is reinforced by the fact that Hector initially wants to kill the soldier so he can take his "armour" as a trophy.