Troilus and Cressida Part 2 - The Sources and the Legend

Shakespeare For All

Part 2 begins with a closer examination of the play’s major sources, especially Homer’s Iliad, a story of war, and the medieval poet Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, a story of love. It goes to examine how Shakespeare undermines these literary traditions, particularly by showing the overlap of love and war in this play — how erotic relationships became the field on which men play out their rivalries with each other. It then analyzes the striking differences between Chaucer’s depiction of Cressida and Shakespeare’s, to conclude by asking why Shakespeare would create such a corrosive, demystifying revision of this central cultural story — and why it’s so valuable for us today.