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Love's Labor's Lost by William Shakespeare.
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Biography Essay"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer,...
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The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is generally acknowledged to be the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history.The ...
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Considered by critics, scholars, and the theater-going public the most important dramatist in the history of English literature, William Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the pantheon of great...
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"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or ...
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William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly ...
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In the essay below, Levin presents an overview of Love's Labour's Lost, studying the play's language, plot, and theme of scholarship versus courtship, while noting its playfulness...
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In the essay below, Ornstein emphasizes the artificiality of Love's Labour's Lost as a comedy and a satire of abstruse intellectuality in conflict with love.
Like most farces Errors has ...
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In the essay below, Montrose considers the indeterminacy of the ending of Love's Labour's Lost and the thematic reconciliation of actuality and imagination in the play's closing s...
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In the essay below, Beiner studies the disruption of comic form, and Shakespeare's refusal to provide a comic resolution, in Love's Labour's Lost.
“Not because I was ignora...
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In the essay below, Hoy argues that Love's Labour's Lost reveals the function of comedy as a means of discerning human infirmity and incongruity.
Love's Labour's Lost, says...
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In the essay below, McFarland analyzes the comic spirit and form of Love's Labour's Lost, noting the artificiality and thematic significance of its paradisiacal setting.
The setting of L...
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In the essay below, Nevo contends that the transformative power of language is central to Love's Labour's Lost. She examines the significance of the play's ending, seeing the work...
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In the essay below, Dash examines the oaths made by male characters in Love's Labour's Lost, relating these to the representation of honesty and of women in the play.
“A time meth...
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In the essay below, originally published in 1971, Greene assesses Love's Labour's Lost in terms of its concern with society, noting that the play lacks both a locus of political authorit...
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In the following essay, Hunt studies the ways in which the figure of Queen Elizabeth, as both a nurturing and threatening female, informs the characterization of the Princess of France in Love'...
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In the following essay, Burnett approaches the topicality of Love's Labour's Lost by exploring the play in terms of its critical discourse on Elizabethan cultural practices, especially t...
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In the essay below, Hall describes the pursuit by the male characters of witty, erotic discourse as irresponsible, and contends that the patriarchal order is threatened through their actions, but iron...
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In the following essay, Corum reviews the critical debate concerning the problematic ending of Love's Labour's Lost, reassessing the play as a whole and the ending in particular in terms...
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In the review below, Maguin offers a favorable review of the production of Love's Labour's Lost directed by Terry Hands. Maguin is appreciative of the unflagging rhythm of the production...
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In the following review, Wells praises the Edwardian Oxford setting of the production of Love's Labour's Lost staged at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. According to...
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In the review that follows, Kauffman reviews Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, criticizing the casting as “dull” in some cases and “d...
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In the following review, Morse comments on a Parisian production of Love's Labour's Lost directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, characterizing the production as a successful black comedy.
Em...
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In the essay that follows, Tricomi dismisses efforts to correlate figures in the subplot of Love's Labour's Lost to historical personages, but admits some correspondences can be made bet...
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In the following essay, Asp demonstrates the way in which the women in the play invite the men to come to terms with human loss, and to temper this loss through both compassion and the “proper&...
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In the essay below, Breitenberg challenges the notion that the play's ending emphasizes the power the women hold over the men of Love's Labour's Lost. Rather, Breitenberg maintain...
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In the following essay, Smidt offers an analysis of the apparent inconsistencies in Shakespeare's characters in order to suggest that Love's Labour's Lost begins as a romance and ...
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In the following essay, Alvis concentrates on Shakespeare's use of the main plot and subplots in Love's Labour's Lost to convey the theme of constancy destroyed by vanity.
Shakesp...
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In the following essay, Roberts compares Love's Labour's Lost with Margaret Cavendish's The Convent of Pleasure (1668), and highlights the innovative thematic approach taken by bo...
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In the following essay, Pendergast explores a number of prominent themes in Love's Labour's Lost related to language, love, marriage, nature, and artifice.
The title Love's Labour...
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In the following review of Kenneth Branagh's 2000 film adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, Elley provides a generally positive assessment, noting only minor flaws, but also consid...
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In the following review, Scott characterizes Kenneth Branagh's film version of Love's Labour's Lost as entertaining but not particularly impressive.
For every man with his affects...
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In the following review of Kenneth Branagh's film version of Love's Labour's Lost, Corliss accuses the director and star of amateurism and lists several weaknesses of the project....
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In the following excerpted review, Simon finds nothing redeeming in Kenneth Branagh's cinematic Love's Labour's Lost, and critiques the individual performances of its cast.
Kennet...
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In the following review, Bowman criticizes Kenneth Branagh's treatment of the scenes, context, and meaning of Shakespeare's text in his film adaptation of Love's Labour's L...
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In the following essay, Wray analyzes the mechanisms of nostalgia utilized in Kenneth Branagh's faux prewar era filmic interpretation of Love's Labour's Lost.
With Love's L...
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In the following essay, Westlund sees the conflict between imaginative fancy and achievement (paralleling a conflict between artifice and nature) as the central theme of Love's Labour's ...
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In the following essay, McLay maintains that the songs sung by Spring and Winter at the close of Love's Labour's Lost reflect and expand the play's major themes: the movement ...
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In the following essay, originally published in Japanese in 1982, Nakanori argues that Love's Labour's Lost shares strong structural affinities with Shakespeare's other “fe...
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In the following review of Trevor Nunn's 2003 Royal National Theater staging of Love's Labour's Lost, Wolf contends that the production was a “partial success,” noti...
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In the following review, Mikesell evaluates Sarah Megan Thomas's 2003 Thirteenth Night Theatre Company production of Love's Labour's Lost at the Tribeca Playhouse in New York.
Sar...
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In the following review, Kohn applauds Antoni Cimolino's 2003 Stratford Festival of Canada production of Love's Labour's Lost.
The quickest way to discern the trifling nature of L...
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In the following essay, Kehler emphasizes the theme of deception in Love's Labour's Lost.
When Longaville first sees Maria, he asks Boyet, “Pray you, sir, whose daughter?” ...
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In the following essay, Maus offer a feminist critique of Love's Labour's Lost in which she explores the connection between the play's language and its theme of sexual politics.
I...
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In the following essay, Parker highlights the various class and gender relationships in Love's Labour's Lost.
At the beginning of Love's Labor's Lost, after the men of Nava...
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In the following essay, Thomas examines the paradoxes found in Love's Labour's Lost.
Love's Labour's Lost inevitably invites discussion by paradox. It is Shakespeare'...
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In the following excerpt, Kerrigan offers a historical overview of Love's Labour's Lost, examining its premiere performance, critical interpretations, and, most importantly, Shakespeare&...
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In the following essay, Gilbert attempts to show how Shakespeare's Elizabethan audiences would have experienced Love's Labour's Lost.
In this play, which all the editors have conc...
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In the following essay, Lennam contends that the principal figures in Love's Labour's Lost resemble characters found in traditional morality plays.
… a foolish extravagant spirit,...
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In the following excerpt, originally published in 1993, Skura contends that Shakespeare parodied the concepts of heroic honor and fame through his characterization of the pretentious figure of Don Arm...
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In the following essay, Birenbaum analyzes the themes of will and desire in Love's Labour's Lost and illustrates how these themes are developed through the actions of the characters.
Kin...
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In the following review, Duguid considers Kenneth Branagh's 2000 film adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost.
Love's Labour's Lost has an odd stage history; hardly ever ...
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In the following excerpted review, Clapp praises Trevor Nunn's 2003 National Theatre production of Love's Labour's Lost.
Trevor Nunn's production of Love's Labour&#x...
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In the following excerpted review, Morley lauds Trevor Nunn's 2003 National Theatre production of Love's Labour's Lost, particularly Joseph Fiennes's performance as Berowne...
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In the following excerpt, Phialas describes Love's Labour's Lost as a satire on romance, comparing it to other Shakespearean comedies and observing that its dual theme stresses the impor...
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In the following essay, Hunt contends that through the character of the Princess of France, Shakespeare portrayed Renaissance England's ambivalent view of its aging Queen Elizabeth I.
The shado...
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In the essay below, Chaney reviews scholarly attempts at identifying the genre of Love's Labour's Lost and argues that in this play, Shakespeare purposely avoided a conventionally happy ...
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In the following essay, Goldstien asserts that Love's Labour's Lost is a satire on the Renaissance or Petrarchan view of love as spiritual or ideal, presenting love instead as sensual de...
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In this essay, MacCary uses the character Berowne to examine Shakespeare's development of masculine love in the play from an idealized desire of women to a recognition of women as real and ther...
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In the following essay, Asp refutes the idea that the female characters spoil the play's ending by thwarting their male counterparts' desire, and instead credits the women with teaching ...
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[Here, Bevington compares Love's Labour's Lost to Lyly 's Sappho and Phao, maintaining that the play's contradictory portrayal of women—as objects of lust Act V, ...
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In the following excerpt, Calderwood asserts that in Love's Labour's Lost Shakespeare begins by focusing on language as an art form rather than as a source of meaning, but ends by prepar...
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In the essay below, Hamilton discusses the importance of language in Love's Labour's Lost, in relation to spectacle, demonstrating how the words in the play call attention to themselves ...
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Below, Erickson examines the issues of love and power between men and women as they are presented in the play, arguing that the male characters 'foolishness and the female characters ' d...
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Love's Labor's Lost is the tale of the pride of the head overcoming the love of the heart, and then vice-versa. There are two main parties of characters in the play. First, there's King Ferdinand o...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
Critical Essay by Harry Levin
Love's Labor's Lost
