Love's Labour's Lost story
Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to swear off the company of women for three years in order to focus on study and fasting. Their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of France and her ladies makes them forsworn. In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play closes with the death of the Princess's father, and all weddings are delayed for a year. The play draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalisation, and reality versus fantasy.
6 total · 6 major
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| chastity | major | four men tried to forswear women for three years and failed miserably |
| forbidden love | major | after the compact and the King's edict, the various trysts of Berowne, Dumaine, Longaville, King Ferdinand himself and, indeed, the whole court were illegal |
| infatuation | major | Adriano de Armado with Jaquenetta; King Ferdinand with Princess; Berowne with Rosaline; Dumaine with Katharine; Longaville with Maria |
| obsessive love | major | various characters wasted their time pining and writing love letters instead of tending to their studies as they were supposed to |
| poetry | major | it seems every other character was writing love poetry, and often competing against each explicitly in the art of turning a phrase |
| promiscuity | major | A point of the story was that four men failed miserably to forswear women. |