Two Gentlemen of Verona

My Shakespeare project chugs along happily.

Two Gentlemen of Verona was lame, no bones about it. My greatest qualm by far with Shakespeare's (possibly) first play is the inconsistency with which people are ruled by love. At first, the loves between Proteus and Julia and Valentine and Silvia are unavoidable, all-consuming loves-to-end-all-loves. Through the course of the play, though, both Proteus and Valentine let their loves for their respective ladies be governed by the sort rationality and fairness that normally exist between friends playing a jovial game. In the very last scene (during which all of the impossible tension and drama that has built up throughout the acts is dismissed in a single, shamefully Shakespearian: "Oops!"), Proteus reverts his love from Silvia back to his original squeeze, Julia, as if he were flicking a switch on an operating board.

Why do the men play at love like a rational game, while the women are helpless in its power? Why, indeed.

I'm going to chalk this one up to inexperience, Will. One star out of five.