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Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. It was described by Frederick S. Boas as one of Shakespeare's problem plays. The play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus and Cressida. Throughout the play, the tone lurches wildly between bawdy comedy and tragic gloom, and readers and theatre-goers have frequently found it difficult to understand how one is meant to respond to the characters. However, several characteristic elements of the play (the most notable being its constant questioning of intrinsic values such as hierarchy, honour and love) have often been viewed as distinctly modern, as in the following remarks on the play by author and literary scholar Joyce Carol Oates: Troilus and Cressida, that most vexing and ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays, strikes the modern reader as a contemporary document-its investigation of numerous infidelities, its criticism of tragic pretensions, above all, its implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only existential are themes of the twentieth century. ... This is tragedy of a special sort-the tragedy the basis of which is the impossibility of conventional tragedy.

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William Shakespeare, also known as Bard of Avon, is regarded as one of the greatest writer in the English language and the finest dramatist of the world. He was a successful English poet, Playwright, and actor. He is often called England's National Poet. His works have been translated into every major language of the world, and are performed the most as compared to any other playwright. His works, along with some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and few other verses, of which the authorship of some is unconfirmed. Shakespeare's private life is much speculated about, as too few records of his private life have survived. The known works of Shakespeare were produced between 1589 and 1613. In the early phase as a playwright, Shakespeare mostly produced comedies and histories, and these works are considered as one of the best in these genres. Afterwards, he wrote tragedies until about 1608, which include Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello. These works are also one of the finest in English language, and literature. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

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