Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Barry Nass

Critical Essay by Barry Nass

SOURCE: “‘Yet in the Trial Much Opinion Dwells’: The Combat Between Hector and Ajax in Troilus and Cressida,” in English Studies, Vol. 65, No. 1, February, 1984, pp. 1-10.

In the following essay, Nass describes Troilus and Cressida as a play which focuses on the search for authentic, individual identity as well as for loyalty and love within the chaos of war.

Critics of Troilus and Cressida often regard the combat between Hector and Ajax (IV.v.) as a dramatic failure or as yet one more jarring episode in Shakespeare's satiric and unsettling portrayal of the Trojan War. Reuben A. Brower speaks for the majority when he observes, with disappointment, that ‘the effect of the scene is lamely anti-climactic’. Daniel Seltzer confirms this judgment from a theatrical perspective, describing the duel as ‘a red-herring for the director, … dramatically uninteresting compared to other portions of the scene … [and] especially pale...
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