Troilus and Cressida

Roles

• Thersites - Young Adult (20-35), Adult (36-50), Senior (>50), Male

About this piece

Thersites mocks Ajax and Achilles

Summary

The prologue introduces us to the story. The play is about the Trojan War, the mythological war between Troy and several Greek kings led by Menelaus of Sparta. The war starts when Paris of Troy steals the beautiful Helen from Menelaus. In response, the Spartan king gathers 69 princes from several cities in Greece and attacks Troy in order to rescue Helen. The play starts in the middle of the war, that is 7 years after the war started. In the first ACT we are introduced to the main characters in the Trojan side and Troilus' love for Cressida. The Greek army, led by Agamemnon, is going through a crisis and various commanders, such as Nestor and Ulysses, and Greek kings meet to discuss a plan of action to conquer Troy. Aeneas, a Trojan commander, brings a challenge from Hector, the greatest Trojan warrior. Hector has decided to challenge any Greek soldier in a fight and in case he is defeated, he will give up his wife to whoever he will fight. The Greek commanders choose to send Ajax instead of Achilles (who is considered the greatest Greek warrior), in order to provoke him since he is being lazy and has been avoiding fighting with the Greek army. Ajax asks his slave Thersites to find out what news Aeneas brought but he refuses. Ajax beats him and later finds out about the challenge from Achilles who tells him the fighter who will fight Hector will be decided by a lottery. In the third scene of ACT II we find Thersites, who is a ruffian and is always cursing at everybody, mock Ajax and Achilles for their pretensions and their disruptive attitudes towards the war with the Trojans.

Tone

Use cases