What is love? One defines love in different ways. Cressida is very emotional in Act VI, Scene V of Troilus and Cressida. At line six, she states:.
If I could temporize with my affection.
Or brew it to a weak and colder palate, .
The like allayment could I give my grief (VI.V.6).
This passage explains the moderation that Pandarus would like instilled on Cressida's emotions, but she feels that her love cannot be adjusted or diluted. Cressida asks her Uncle how she should moderate her feelings, by stating:.
The grief is fine, full, perfect that I taste,.
And violenteth in a sense as strong.
As that which causeth it. How can I moderate it? (IV.V.2-5). .
This is the only time that she addresses her love and it is not directly aimed at Troilus. This implies that Cressida's emotional battle with her appetite for feeling love is not in effect directed towards Troilus. Also present is the fact that she is a Trojan and is being given to the Greeks. This worries her husband, Troilus. His love for her is very simple and true. At line 23, Troilus says, "Cressida, I love thee in so strained a purity that the blest gods, as angry with my fancy- (VI.V.23-24). Troilus constantly tells Cressida his love for her, but Cressida is not direct with her emotions of love. After Troilus states his love at line 23, Cressida seems to be sarcastic with her response of "Have the gods envy?" (VI.V.27). This remark may not seem to be sarcastic, but Troilus was trying to give his wife a compliment. If Cressida truly loved him, why would she not accept the flattery? The reader gets a sense of foreshadowing into the future of the play by the way Cressida treats Troilus.
As previously stated, Cressida is being given to the Greeks. As a reader of Troilus and Cressida, truth is not what we normally perceive truth to be, but it is rather Troilus asking his wife not to have sex with other men while she is being captive. He is asking her to honor their vows to one another.
