Who Should Rule? and Opinion

In many of Shakespeare’s plays certain words can carry a variety of meanings. Each of these different meanings cast a different light on events and issues in the play. Troilus and Cressida is no exception to this trend. Here one with a variety of implications in “opinion”. Although some might consider it a word with a straightforward meaning, Shakespeare uses it in different ways. This begs the question: how and what for?

One definition of the noun form version of the term “opinion” is view or conviction help by the majority of people, or what is commonly thought about an issue.  This is one of the more apparent meanings of “opinion” in Troilus and Cressida. When read in this light the word “opinion” helps to illuminate the issue of moral and authority in war and how “opinion” can undo moral. Moral is of the upmost importance in war it keeps the solider read to obey and fight, and the commander able to make impatient decisions. Ulysses, one of the Greek commanders states before his king “The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns…/Lies mocking our designs. With him Patroclus/ Upon a lazy bed the livelong day” (I.3.143, 145-147). If one reads the word “opinion” in these lines as a view held by many people, then they show how peoples’ views can demotivate soldiers and undermine authority.star-wars-troopers-in-pool

However, this definition of “opinion” in the lines above also raises the issue of command. Achilles refuses to fight despite his commander Agamemnon’s demands. Achilles is able to do this because most people in the play view him as a great warrior, and hold him in high regard. As a result “opinion” grants him power and denies it to the Greek king Agamemnon. This raises the question of where the right to command comes from; either from birth right like that of Agamemnon, or from the support of the masses like Achilles holds? Although Shakespeare does not present a clear answer to this question, he does at least suggest the question for his audiences’ consideration in his play Troilus and Cressida with this definition of the term “opinion”.

Yet, with another definition of the word “opinion” Shakespeare does propose an answer in this play. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, another definition of the noun form of “opinion” is how a person is thought of by others, or their reputation.  In discussing how to make Achilles fight and submit to Agamemnon’s command Ulysses talks about being carful to preserve the Greek leadership’s reputation. He states  “If he [Achilles] were foiled, / Why then we did our main opinion crush/…No make a lott’ry”(I.3.371-373). Ulysses continues by suggesting that the Greek leadership have Ajax win the lottery so that no matter who wins the duel with Hector, the Trojan prince, the Greeks reputation will be intact; “we go under our opinion still/…hit or miss (II.1.382-383). These lines suggest that it is the support of the masses that grant power. Here Ulysses is devising a plan to make Achilles more compliant, and possiblyUlysses plotting demoralize the Trojans by killing their beloved prince Hector while still maintaining the “opinion” of the Greek commanders. By understanding the term “opinion” as synonymous with reputation one can see Shakespeare’s suggestion that it is the masses that grant the power to command. Ulysses plan is to both bolster the reputation of the Greek leadership in the short and long run. The plan would increase Agamemnon’s reputation in the short run by humbling Achilles to the point that he would obey the Greek king, and it would increase his “opinion” in the long run by killing Hector which would assist with the conquering of Troy. However, this plan is very careful to protect the “opinion” of the Greek leadership. This suggests that even those with an aristocratic birth right to power recognize that the power to rule is actually granted by the masses, and that ones reputation is an essential piece of gaining the support of the masses. Thus, by employing the word “opinion” in Troilus and Cressida Shakespeare not only raises the question of what grants one the power to rule, but answers it as well.