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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silence of the Girls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mythology and Oppressed Perspectives
The Effects of Misogyny
Honor and Violence
Slavery and Dehumanization
Grief and Revenge
Summary
Analysis
(Here the novel shifts from Briseis’s perspective to the third person). Achilles and Patroclus go one evening to review a trench and parapet Agamemnon has ordered dug to keep the Trojan forces away from the Greek ships, lest an enemy’s burning arrow set them alight. Patroclus, furious at his own inactivity, tells Achilles that their men could aid in building the defenses—Achilles swore not to fight, but he didn’t promise total inactivity. Achilles says that he meant total inactivity, and that it’s Agamemnon’s fault. Patroclus points out that it isn’t the Greek soldiers’ fault, and Achilles retorts that it isn’t his fault either.
Patroclus’s fury at not being able to fight is ambiguous. On the one hand, he could be furious out of loyalty to the Greeks: he wants to help his comrades and hates that Achilles is preventing it. On the other hand, he could be furious because Achilles is preventing him from fighting, which is how Greek warriors assert their individual value and status. Patroclus’s willingness to do inglorious menial work building defenses suggests that the former is the more likely explanation, however.
Themes
Patroclus asks whether “this is it,” and Achilles equivocates on “it,” saying he doubts Agamemnon will reach out yet. They both know Patroclus badly wants to tell Achilles, “This isn’t about you,” but instead he says that if the Trojans enter the Greek camp, Achilles will have to fight them anyway. Achilles allows that he’ll fight—if attacked.
Patroclus and Achilles’s different interpretations of the word “it” suggests their different priorities. Whereas Patroclus seems to be asking whether Achilles, Patroclus, and all Achilles’s followers are done fighting in the Trojan War, Achilles is focused only on himself and on paying back Agamemnon’s insult to his honor—hence Patroclus’s desire to tell Achilles that the war isn’t all about him.
Themes
