The play Troilus and Cressida is called a tragedy by Shakespeare but it has become common to class it as one of the three ‘problem plays,’ together with All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure. This is because the principal characters do not suffer the kind of tragic outcome consistent with the Greek concept that Shakespeare generally followed and neither do they pass through any great epiphany-like moment of learning and change. There is death and misery, to be sure, but for the lesser characters. Instead, the main characters are presented as so flawed that it is difficult to feel much sympathy for them or empathy with them. Partly because of this, the play is one that has not been often staged in recent years and is not one of Shakespeare’s most well-loved.

The play’s action takes place during the Siege of Troy. Paris has stolen away Paris from her husband Menelaus and the latter helps organise a massive fleet of Greek ships to return her from the city where she is being held. The Greeks arrive and set up their camp, where the mighty heroes spend their time bickering among themselves in decidedly unheroic manner. In particular, mighty Achilles has withdrawn from the fray and is loitering within his tent, after a row over a slave girl. Meanwhile, in the city itself, the minor prince Troilus is endeavouring to gain access to the woman with whom he has fallen in love, Cressida. To win her heart, he enlists Pandarus (from whom comes the term ‘to pander’) and he sets out to persuade Cressida of the virtue and value of Troilus and his suit. He is swiftly successful and the two are united. Unfortunately, they are forced to part for political reasons as Cressida is exchanged for the hostage Antenor. While Troilus mopes, Cressida is undaunted and transfers her affections to Diomedes, who takes her away from the city. Indeed, the Greeks soon conclude that Cressida is pretty much prepared to transfer her affections whenever it might be required: while this appears to be a perfectly sensible survival strategy for a woman caught alone in the travails of war, throughout history such a woman has been castigated as a ‘wanton’ and considered to be, therefore, immoral.

The action carries on with some fighting on the beaches and reaches what kind of a climax the play does reach when Achilles and his colleagues cut down the Trojan hero Hector, before dragging his body behind a chariot. Troilus is not reconciled with Cressida and wanders off, while the war continues. The Greeks have taken a woman from the Trojans to balance the loss of Helen and the death of Hector is of course to be avenged. History repeats itself but no one seems to learn anything very much. Thus does the play end, not with a bang but with a whimper.