SOURCE: “He Do Cressida in Different Voices,” in English Literary Renaissance, Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring, 1990, pp. 254-86.

In the following essay, Hodgdon refers to several different stage adaptations of Troilus and Cressida to demonstrate how the play was constructed to keep Cressida in particular, and, through her representation, Renaissance women in general, under male control.

When Trojan Hector visits the Greek camp, Troilus and Cressida represents his meeting with Achilles as an exchange of male gazes, powerful speaking looks through which each constructs, or attempts to deconstruct, the identity of the other:

Achilles. Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; I have with exact view perused thee, Hector, And quoted joint by joint. … Hector. Stand fair, I prithee; let me look on thee. Achilles. Behold thy fill. Hector.                                         Nay, I have done already. Achilles. Thou art too brief. I will the second time, As I would buy...