Troilus and Cressida Act Three – “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

Troilus and Cressida Act Three – “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

It is hard to tell who the true antagonist is in ‘Troilus and Cressida’. At first Achilles seems like the obvious choice but then Ulysses is so masterly written like a subtle villain in the play. But to these two later.

Act Three starts with love and Pandarus who is trying to get an audience with Paris. When Paris and Helen enter, Pandarus praises her and asks Paris to makes excuses for Troilus coming to dinner that night with Priam. Paris and Helen pry out of him that the reason for this is that Troilus is going to try to woo Cressida that very night. Pandarus leaves to find Troilus.

Pandarus finally finds Troilus in an orchard and takes Troilus anxious with anticipation to Cressida. When Pandarus leaves, Troilus and Cressida express their love for one another. They make a love pact and then leave to seal their love in other ways.

Like a Greek tragedy, fate seems to be working against the lovers Troilus and Cressida for in the Greek camp Cressida's father, Calchas, is making a deal for the captured Trojan leader Antenor, which involves his daughter being given to Agamemnon and the Greeks.

Meanwhile, Ulysses gets all of the Greek leaders to go past Achilles’s tent and hardly acknowledge him. This infuriates Achillles who goes to Ulysses to ask him the reason for this snub and Ulysses says that Ajax is the man of the moment. Ulysses also cunningly reveals that he knows that Achilles is in love with a Trojan princess and he suggests that Achilles stop playing with love and try to restore his honour on the battlefield.

“Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love

With one of Priam's daughters…

All the commerce that you have had with Troy

As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord;

And better would it fit Achilles much

To throw down Hector than Polyxena:

But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home,

When fame shall in our islands sound her trump,

And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing,

'Great Hector's sister did Achilles win,

But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.'

Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak;

The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break.

As Ulysses goes, realizes that that his "reputation is at stake" and on hearing that Ajax is walking around the Greek camp like a peacock puffed up with false pride, Achilles gets Patroclus to send a slave to persuade Ajax to take Hector to Achilles's tent after their fight the next day, so that Achilles and Hector may have a private word or two. The plot thickens.