Love/Hate's Labour's Lost

One of the main topics of discussion in our group has been its juvenile nature, with regards to the male characters and to the play itself. But I think I found another way that this play is childish.

Mean Girls

First, we talked about the whole idea of "swearing off women" as being naive and unrealistic. The king and his lords last barely three acts before giving up on their oath. And, the way they show their love to the Princess of France and her ladies, like passing "check yes or no" notes in class, seems like playground behavior. It seems like not only are these the first women they've interacted with since swearing their oath, they're the first women they've ever interacted with. (We compared the king and his lords to awkward returned missionaries who don't know what to do in the presence of a girl.)

Gossip Girl

Also, we've talked about Shakespeare's immaturity in writing the play. The common opinion seems to be that the main motivation for writing Love's Labour's Lost was the opportunity to craft clever wordplay. And we agreed that was definitely at the expense of everything else. Where are the complex characters like Hamlet? Where is the substantial plot? Why does everything happen so conveniently? So the characters just magically fall in love in an instant? And the king and his lords just happen to cross paths in the forest? A more modern play, or even another Shakespeare play would present some sort of reason for each character to be at that place at that time. But, in Love's Labour's Lost, nothing.

What I discovered by reading Act V was that it's not just the male characters or Shakespeare who have some growing up to do. It's the females too. In Act V, all the women do is make fun of the men.

Rosaline: ... Nay, I have verses too, I think Biron:

The numbers true; and, were the numbering too,

I were the fairest goddess on the ground:

I am compared to twenty thousand fairs.

O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!

Princess of France: Any thing like?

Rosaline: Much in the letters; nothing in the praise.

Princess of France: Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion.

Katharine: Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

...

Princess of France: But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair Dumain?

Katharine: Madam, this glove.

Princess of France: Did he not send you twain?

Ricky after Lucy tricks him yet again

Katharine: Yes, madam, and moreover

Some thousand verses of a faithful lover,

A huge translation of hypocrisy,

Vilely compiled, profound simplicity

Maria: This and these pearls to me sent Longaville: 

The letter is too long by half a mile.

Princess of France: I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart

The chain were longer and the letter short?

Maria: Ay, or I would these hands might never part.

Princess of France: We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.

Rosaline: They are worse fools to purchase mocking so.

That same Biron I'll torture ere I go:

O that I knew he were but in by the week!

How I would make him fawn and beg and seek

And wait the season and observe the times 

And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes

And shape his service wholly to my hests

And make him proud to make me proud that jests!

So perttaunt-like would I o'ersway his state

That he should be my fool and I his fate.

"Pick A Little, Talk A Little" from The Music Man

And later, after the lords have come dressed as Russians and the ladies mess with them by wearing masks, Rosaline says, "Let's, mock them still."

These women are totally taking advantage of the men, and putting them through torture for their entertainment. They're making the men jump through all these hoops.

Is that a sign of immaturity? Aren't the women acting like girls on the playground too?