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Chapter 26
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
Patroclus returns to Achilles’s hut in tears. When Achilles demands to know where he’s been and asks what’s wrong, Patroclus sarcastically asks what could be wrong. Achilles compares him to a “little girl” weeping for her mother and mockingly says, “Mummy, Mummy”—at which point Patroclus lunges at him and begins throttling him. Achilles lets him. After several moments, Patroclus reins in his emotions and releases Achilles’s throat. Achilles, casually but hoarsely, claims not to have remembered Patroclus’s extreme “temper.”
It isn’t clear whether Patroclus is crying over the wounded Greek soldiers or Briseis’s bruised face—perhaps both. Whatever the case, his reaction demonstrates his empathy in contrast with Achilles’s callous individualism. Achilles mocks Patroclus by imagining him calling out for his “Mummy,” something that Achilles himself was doing earlier in the book; this telling insult on Achilles’s part suggests that Achilles secretly scorns himself for his ongoing attachment to his mother, revealing his misogyny and his hatred of his own emotional vulnerability.
Themes
Patroclus sits down, explains the dire situation in the Greek camp, and urges Achilles to fight. When Achilles says that he simply can’t, Patroclus asks Achilles to let him lead the men into battle. Achilles hesitates, and Patroclus asks whether Achilles thinks Patroclus couldn’t do it. Achilles says that isn’t it, and Patroclus asks for Achilles’s armor. Achilles says that if Patroclus wore Achilles’s armor, all the Trojans would try to kill him—including the most skilled Trojan warrior, Hector. Patroclus accuses Achilles of saying he’s a bad fighter. Achilles says no—he’s just pointing out that Patroclus isn't Achilles.
Here Patroclus’s motives seem to be a mix of altruism and a selfish desire for individual glory. On the one hand, he genuinely wants to help his fellow Greek warriors. On the other hand, he feels insecure about his status as a fighter and wants to prove himself independent from Achilles. Patroclus’s desire to prove himself and win honor only grows as Achilles worries aloud that Patroclus will get himself killed.
Themes
Patroclus claims not to care whether he dies. Achilles, exploding, says that he cares. Then, defeated, he agrees to let Patroclus fight with two caveats: one, Patroclus stops as soon as he pushes the Trojans back from the Greek ships and, two, he avoids Hector. Patroclus, after hesitating, agrees to these conditions. Giddily, he admits how excited he is to tell the men they get to fight. Melancholically, Achilles admits that he aspired to sack Troy with only Patroclus by his side. Patroclus asks whether all their other comrades were dead in this fantasy, and Achilles says, “I suppose.” Patroclus asks Achilles whether he knows he’s a monster. Achilles says he does, throws an arm around Patroclus’s shoulders, and suggests they go eat.
Yet again, Patroclus’s and Achilles’s divergent reactions reveal the differences in their characters. Patroclus is excited to tell Achilles’s men that they will be allowed to fight; he thinks of the war fundamentally as a communal activity. By contrast, Achilles has been daydreaming about sacking Troy with only Patroclus by his side, revealing that he wants to hoard all honor for himself—and for Patroclus, who is perhaps the only person other than Thetis that Achilles has ever deeply loved.
Themes
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