Discord in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida; or, The Conflict between "Angry Mars and Venus Queen of Love"

ROILUS AND CRESSIDA is a challenge to Shakespearean critics, yet the inconclusive end of the play-the lack of resolution, of satisfaction-stresses the theme of discord in this double story of love and war. The music of the play is broken as there resound the "ungracious clamours," "the rude sounds" of the war, the bawdy song of the ribald crow, Pandarus, or the harsh echoes of brass music, the many trumpet calls, which symbolize the discordant tone of the whole argument, the sickening fever of a chaotic world.. That the tone of the play will be discordant is emphasized in its very Prologue, with its clever anticlimax. To announce the cruel chance of war, it shows the proud Greeks that have