I have to agree with many of the comments made so far, especially the one that characterizes the women in Shakespearean plays. In this particular play, Troilus and Cressida, women are portrayed as either a whore, crazy or hardly referred to at all in the text.
Andromache does not appear in the play until act V. She is the wife of the greatest Trojan warrior, Hector. “Hath nothing been but shape and forms of slaughter” (5.3.12). In act V she implores Hector not to fight because she dreamed about his death. After a few lines we never hear from her again.
Cassandra is the Trojan princess and prophetess. She is portrayed as a crazy woman yet she warns her brothers of the fall of Troy, “Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go” (2.2.112). She does not reappear until the final act, when she too warns Hector of his death. The Trojans fail to listen to her words and they lose their hero.
Helen is cause of the war between the Trojans and the Greek. She is represented as a whore in this play because she willingly leaves Menelaus for Paris. Diomedes calls both men fools to fight and destroy for her and for their glory. (4.1.54-56)
Cressida is also depicted as whore. At first she thinks highly of Hector then Pandarus opens her eyes to Troilus. She gives in to his seduction as she will give in to Diomedes. In act IV Ulysses degrades Cressida by stating that everyone must kiss her to welcome her. I believe this act was unfair to Cressida because there is nothing else she could have done about the kisses. Yet she is deemed as loose by Ulysses and he himself does not kiss her.
Upon first glance, women might appear to be “hardly referred to at all in the text,” however I think it is important to recall the premise of the actual plot. As you mentioned, Helen is the sole cause of the war, and also, Cressida’s name is important enough to be included in the title of the play itself. Therefore, after taking these issues into consideration, I think women actually play somewhat of a larger role than one might initially think.
Also, I think it is notable to consider that “whore” can have two different connotations. I would agree that Cassandra and Helen are both “whores,” but each in their own way. I feel Helen can be considered a whore, in the sense of being free or being a slut – one that sleeps around and is constantly seeking new sexual relations – while Cassandra is an actual whore (meaning prostitute). Her uncle, Pandarus, is indeed a pander (the equivalent to a modern-day pimp) and uses his niece’s body and sexuality to benefit himself.
Goodness! Poor Cressida! She’s not counting her money yet.
Eric’s comment is interesting. The fact that Cressida’s name is in the title definitely gives some importance to her character, and being that much of the play revolves around the war, it is not out of place that women don’t populate the plot. We’ve seen Helen and Cressida in enough detail to draw some serious conclusions about their personalities, as mentioned above. Andromache begs Hector to stay home from battle, which is the only major role she held in Homer’s epic as well. As for Cassandra, her visions were a curse…this remains true to the poem as an aspect of her curse was that no one would ever believe her words. Looking at the play from this angle, we can see that the attitudes towards these women are not the invention of Shakespeare, however they hold true to legendary attitudes. We have to keep in mind that this is originally Homer’s story, Shakespeare is borrowing it and he does a good job of reflecting the original author’s work.
I agree with many of the comments. Women in Shakespeare do not have any or much importance. Their roles depict women in a negative manner. However, Tessa makes a good point of the role Cressida plays because her name is included in the title. This holds true in Romeo and Juliet as well.
Shakespeare chose to make woman not as irrelevant for some reason. Could possibly be due to the fact he was brought up in different times. We may translate his negative view towards women in the wrong way. During that time period, this may have been normal.