Risk, Distrust, and Ingratitude in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida

In Troilus and Cressida, cynical expectations about the political, military, or amatory behavior of others (as if on Hobbesian premises, which were foreshadowed by Jean Bodin) breed a debilitating sense of risk and distrust. Within both Greek and Trojan camps, perceptions that society is disintegrated, ungrateful, and false in its valuations debase the contests for honor into protective-yetfutile self-seeking. The lovers, Troilus and Cressida, feel vulnerable before each other, all the more in having confessed their weaknesses. As in one game-theory strategy, all seek the lesser (and illusory) gain to avert the damage that other parties may do.