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Act 2, Scene 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Troilus and Cressida, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War
Love and Selfishness
Honor
Commodification of Women
Fate and Fortune
Summary
Analysis
In Troy, King Priam calls a council of his sons to determine how to respond to Nestor’s most recent demand for the return of Helen. Making sure to remind everyone of his fierce bravery first, Hector nevertheless says it’s time to let Helen go and end the war. Far too many Trojan soldiers have died. Troilus vehemently disagrees, pointing out that the lives of common soldiers are worth far less than the damage to Trojans’ reputation should they surrender. Prince Helenus sides with Hector, so Troilus accuses him of being a coward, too.
This scene is the mirror of Act 1, Scene 3, which gave the audience insight into the situation in the Greek camp. Things don’t look much better in Troy. They’re holding off the Greek attacks for now, but only because Achilles isn’t fighting. And here, too, there is dissent among the ranks over how to proceed. Here, too, the discussions center around questions about what people owe one another. Troilus holds a view like Ulysses’s, in which those of the lower ranks owe unquestioning obedience to their superiors, even to the point of death. But Hector, at least initially, takes a more compassionate point of view.
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Hector insists that Helen is no longer worth the trouble. Troilus rejects this line of reasoning, saying that the value isn’t circumstantial. Honor demands that a thing once desired be cherished. Paris had the full assent of the rulers of Troy when went to Greece and returned with Helen, apparently as revenge for the Greeks’ capture of one of the princes’ aunts. The blood the Greeks are willing to spill to recover her proves how valuable an asset she is, not to mention her unbelievable beauty. For these reasons, Troilus concludes, the Trojans can’t lose her now.
As the Trojan princes debate whether Helen is worth holding on to—the fact that so many are willing to die for her suggests that she is, while the fact that so many are having to die for her hints that it might be a bad bargain—she is emptied of all personality. She is, in the eyes of these men, not a person with her own desires, but merely a token to be exchanged to prove which side is more impressive. The idea that the kidnapping of Helen was, at least initially, an act of Trojan revenge also points to the hollow core of the war. No one seems to be able to agree on what they’re fighting for, which—to Hector’s point—makes all the deaths seem even more pointless.
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Suddenly, Cassandra bursts into the room, disheveled and shrieking. She prophecies that Troy will burn if the Trojans don’t return Helen. Hector turns to Troilus, who is unmoved. Cassandra is obviously out of her mind, he says, and her “brainsick raptures” have no place in a reasoned debate about what to do.
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For his part, Paris wants to keep Helen and continue the war. Of course he thinks that way, Priam retorts, since Helen is his lover. It’s not just that, Paris insists. He—and the rest of Troy—have embraced Helen as one of their own. It would hardly be honorable if they failed to protect her as fiercely as they do any other citizen. Besides, as she is without equal in the world, her beauty honors everyone in Troy.
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Hector thinks that both Paris and Troilus are animated more by heated emotions than reason. He points out that Helen was Menelaus’s wife first. Natural and human laws protect the sanctity of marriage, and Troy might be flirting with dire consequences by keeping her from her husband. If this were not the case, he says, he’d be all for keeping Helen, since she is so worthy a prize. Troilus seizes on this sentiment to reiterate that Helen’s worth outweighs the loss of life and the potential danger. The Trojans would look like stupid cowards if they didn’t fight to keep her as their own. Somewhat reluctantly, Hector agrees. The glory is the point. That’s why he issued his challenge to the Greeks.
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