SOURCE: "Shakespeare's Cressida: 'A Kind of Self'," in The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare, edited by Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz, Gayle Greene and Carol Thomas Neely, University of Illinois Press, 1980, pp. 133-49.

In the essay that follows, Greene argues that Cressida, by basing her identity on male desires and definitions, becomes "the sum total of 'opinions' of men whose opinions are in themselves societally determined, and she is thus only a representative of her world. "

"Let it not be believ'd for womanhood!"

That human nature is not "natural," but is, rather, shaped by social forces and values, is an understanding we have long had in relation to men but one which has been more difficult to grasp with regard to women. Troilus and Cressida may seem the last place to look for such insights, informed as it is with a loathing of humanity, an aversion to sex...