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Chapter 21
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
(The narrative shifts for this chapter from Briseis’s first-person perspective to a third-person narrative voice.) After a dinner in which Patroclus gives Achilles the silent treatment, they retire to Achilles’s quarters. Suddenly, they hear footsteps outside on their veranda. Odysseus and Ajax enter. Achilles offers them food, which they decline. After an awkward moment, Odysseus bluntly states that Achilles knows the purpose of their visit: they’re visiting on behalf of Agamemnon. When Achilles asks whether Agamemnon is too wounded to come himself, Odysseus asks whether Achilles genuinely expected a visit from Agamemnon. Achilles says yes.
Achilles’s pointed question about why Agamemnon didn’t come himself makes clear that Achilles wants an apology for the insult to his honor, not a bribe. Meanwhile, Agamemnon would rather bribe Achilles lavishly than compromise his own honor. Both men’s behavior thus emphasizes the overwhelming importance of masculine honor in the ancient Greeks’ society.
Themes
Odysseus tells Achilles all the treasure Agamemnon will give Achilles if he and his Myrmidons return to battle. Achilles replies that treasure isn’t worth his life and points out that the Trojans have never done anything bad to him—not like stealing his “prize of honour”! Odysseus tells Achilles that he must be longing for battle—it’s his identity! Achilles retorts, “Not anymore.” When Odysseus reminds Achilles that he volunteered for the battle, Achilles reminds Odysseus that he was 17 at the time. Odysseus suggests that Achilles is behaving dishonorably, and Achilles replies that Odysseus can’t lecture him on honor while speaking on behalf of “a dog turd.”
Achilles repeatedly argues that treasure isn’t worth his life, emphasizing that he fights for his personal honor and glory rather than for loot. His claim that the Trojans have never done anything as bad as stealing his “prize of honour”—the way Agamemnon stole Briseis from him—again foregrounds Achilles’s obsession with individual honor over group loyalty. Meanwhile, the revelation that Achilles began fighting in the war when he was only 17 underscores that even the most privileged Greek men, such as Achilles, are exposed to possible violent death from a very young age.
Themes
Patroclus asks about Briseis by name. Odysseus opens the door, drags in a woman in a heavy veil, and pulls the veil off “with all the panache of a conjurer.” Achilles tightens his grip on his wine but otherwise doesn’t react. Odysseus, surprised by Achilles’s silence, adds that Agamemnon will swear an oath that he had no physical contact with Briseis. Achilles walks to Briseis and raises her chin until she must look at him. Then he says: “Tell him he can fuck her till her back breaks. Why would I care?”
Patroclus is the first—and only—of the men to talk about Briseis by name, which illustrates yet again that he alone among the Greek warriors is capable of seeing the enslaved women as individuals and human beings. By contrast, Odysseus yanks off Briseis’s veil “with all the panache of a conjurer”—implying that he is willing to remove the sign of her status and sexual inviolability as casually as if he were pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Meanwhile, Achilles claims not to care if Agamemnon rapes Briseis to the point of extreme physical injury—a chilling statement.
Themes
Briseis covers her mouth, and Patroclus quickly puts an arm around her and steers her out of the room. Odysseus, dismissing Briseis, tells Achilles that Agamemnon is also offering his daughter in marriage, complete with a massive dowry. When Achilles responds with scorn, Odysseus asks what he wants. Achilles replies that he wants an in-person apology from Agamemnon—and that he’d rather “fuck[] a dead pig” than marry Agamemnon’s daughter. Ajax says tearfully that Achilles doesn’t care about his dying comrades or anything but his own honor, which makes Ajax humiliated to be his cousin. Ajax leaves.
Patroclus, alone among the men, responds to Briseis’s visible distress—again emphasizing that he alone among the Greeks empathizes in any way with the enslaved women. Achilles’s crude rejection of Agamemnon’s offer, including marriage to Agamemnon’s daughter, makes crystal clear that he sees the women as objects and that Agamemnon is attempting to offer them as bribes in place of an apology. Meanwhile, Ajax criticizes Achilles for his lack of loyalty to the Greek army and his obsession with individual honor—a criticism suggesting that some warriors have a more communal view of honor and responsibility, in contrast with Agamemnon and Achilles, who seem to focus solely on their personal honor.
Themes
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