SOURCE: "In Defense of Cressida," in Studies in Philology, Vol. LXXIV, No. 4, October, 1977, pp. 406-17.

In the following essay, Asp contends that Cressida's self-worth originates from the observations of others, emphasizing that her "identity and value are defined by the varying perceptions by which she is judged."

Most critical opinion concerning Cressida leans toward an interpretation of her character as either shallow or calculating, or both. Certainly the text of the play itself hinders us from viewing her as the idealized queen of courtly love, the image of her that Troilus has fashioned for himself. Yet neither will it allow us to dismiss her as Ulysses describes her, merely "a daughter of the game." She is the major, although not the only, character who embodies the play's central metaphysical question: is value a quality intrinsic in the object or is it a variable, fluctuating with subjective appreciations and...