For Thursday: Troilus and Cressida, Act Two

NOTE: Just read Act Two for Thursday, since it’s a slightly harder play, and we have time to go slower. We’ll read 3-4 for Tuesday, but feel free to read ahead if you want. The questions below only cover Act Two.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: The act ends with Agamemnon saying, “Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep” (107). This echoes an earlier speech by Nestor in Act 1, scene 3 (around page 143-144 in the Folger) using the same boat and ocean metaphors. What does he mean by this? How might this metaphor also echo a similar metaphor (and message) in The Sonnets?

Q2: In the Iliad, Hector is Helen’s protector and advocates keeping her in Troy. In Shakespeare, however, he argues that “she is not worth what she doth cost/The keeping” (179). What is his argument for giving her back, and how might it echo Ulysses’ famous (and long) speech in Act 1, scene 3? What makes him insist, despite the pleas of Trolius and even Paris, that she has to be returned?

Q3: What kind of character is Thersites? Is he a typical Shakespearean fool, like the Fool in Twelfth Night? Or is he more like Mercutio? How does he interact with the great heroes Achilles, Ajax, and Patroclus? Does he help us see the ‘truth’ about them? Or is he just here to make us laugh?

Q4: Throughout the play so far, Shakespeare lets numerous anachronisms (historical inaccuracies) creep into his text. How many can you find? Why are they here? Was he a bad historian? Or is there another reason that he continually knocks us out of the legendary time period?