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The Masquerade
In Love’s Labor’s Lost by William Shakespeare, King Ferdinand and his
three attendants;
Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine, take a vow to swear off women and
concentrate on their
studies. This vow only lasted long enough for each man to lay his eyes on
the Princess of France,
Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine. The women receive love letters and gifts
from the men who are
trying to woo them. Although the ladies are flattered, they are disappointed
by their loves’
abilities to easily breaks their vows. Throughout the play, the men try to
woo the ladies with out
ever really interacting with them because they are ashamed of the breaking of
their vows too.
The men decide that they will woo once and for all at the masquerade that
they will all be
attending. The women, on the other hand, have a completely different idea of
what the
masquerade will determine.
The women wear masks and plan on embarrassing the men, who are dressed as
Russians,
by not revealing their true identity. They can not believe the deceitful
nature of the men and plan
on teaching them a lesson. The princess says, “Therefore I do it, and I make
no doubt/ The rest
will [ne’er] come in, if he be out./ There’s no such sport as sport by sport
o’erthrown,/ To make
theirs ours and none but our own;/ So shall we stay; mocking intended game,/
And they, will
mock’d, depart away with shame.” (237; V, ii l. 151-156). The masks that
the women are
wearing symbolize how they have hid their anger and frustration toward the
men. They had
never expressed their disgust with them prior to the masquerade and feel it
necessary to show the
men how foolish they have been for breaking their promises. The masks also
show that the
women were afraid to let their true feeling surface. A mask is a cover;
therefore they have been
covering up their inner thoughts and feelings about the mens’ actions. It is
hard for them to show
the men
their disappointment because they too are in love and feel that they truly
are suitable lovers.
However, they need their opinions to be expressed and appreciated. The plan
works perfectly.
Each man can only recognize his loved one by the jewelry that she is wearing,
and since the
ladies switched presents in order to play their parts, the men woo the wrong
lady. The King
woos Rosaline, Berowne woos the Princess, Dumaine woos Maria, and Longaville
woos
Katherine. The men were trying to be sweet to each lady, while the ladies
were being rude and
thoroughly confusing the men. The King approaches Rosaline by saying,
“Blessed are the
clouds, to do as such clouds do!/ Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy
stars, to/ shine/ (Those
clouds removed) upon our watery eyne.” (237; V, ii l. 203-206). Rosaline,
pretending to be the
Princess, replies, “O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter,/ Thou now
requests but moonshine in
the water.” (237; V,ii l. 207-208). Berowne, trying to impress Rosaline,
approaches the Princess
and says, “White-handed mistress, one sweet work with/ thee.” (238; V,ii l.
229-230). The
Princess comments, “Honey, and milk, and sugar: there is three.” (238;V,ii
l. 231). Mistaking
Maria for Katherine, Dumaine states, “Fair lady - “ (238; V, ii l. 237).
Maria remarks, “Say you
so? Fair lord-/ Take that for your fair lady.” (238; V,ii l. 238-239). The
masks proved that the
men did not really know the ladies at all, and in reality were only in love
with the beauty that
was portrayed on the outside.
Even though the four women are set on speaking their minds, they are
beginning to have
some doubts about embarrassing the men. They are afraid to continue
pretending to be each
other when the men return without their Russian costumes. The princess says,
“What shall we
do,/ If they return in their own shapes to woo?” (239; V,ii l. 298-299).
Even though the women
have not fully convinced themselves that making fools of the men is the right
way to make them
learn their lessons, they need to stick to the game plan. The men need to
totally comprehend that
they are strong, independent women who care more about commitment than love
letters and
presents. Rosaline reminds the Princess of their scheme, “Good madam, if by
me you’ll be
advised,/ Let’s mock them still, as well known as disguis’d./ Let us
complain to them what
fools were here,/
Disguis’d like Muscovites, in shapeless gear;/ And wonder what they were,
and to what end/
Their shallow shows and prologue vildly penn’d,/ And their rough carriage so
ridiculous,/
Should be presented at our tent to us.” (239; V,ii l. 300-307). The ladies
were no longer worried
about hurting the feelings of their loved ones, and instead were sort of
enjoying watching the
men squirm around. The women felt superior to the men for the first time,
and felt like they were
in total control of the situation.
When the women reveal the true identities that were hiding behind the
masks and tell the
men about the trick that they played on them, the men feel stupid and
foolish. The women felt
that their masking was effective because the men were ashamed of their
childish behavior. The
women made sure that the men knew that they were not messing around and that
this was how
they really felt.
I think that the masks were used very well in this play. They had a real
meaning, which
was revealed through the lines in the text, but had an underlying definition
as well. The masks
portrayed the personalities of the women perfectly. The women were strongly
opinionated, yet
were afraid to voice it. They needed to hide behind something in order to
face reality and deal
with the situation. If they did not have masks on, I do not think that they
would have ever had
enough courage to stand up to the men and tell them how they felt. The masks
made them feel
comfortable, as if they were actors in a play. They were a certain character
and had specific lines
to perform off of a script. They could pretend that they were not themselves
in order to make
them feel a little better about the outcome of their prank. They could be
rude and judgmental,
because they were not themselves. It did not matter to them that the men
were unaware of the
switches between the ladies, because they got the points across that they
felt were needed to be
expressed. I think that Shakespeare did an incredible job using symbolism in
this act of the play.
He was a literary genius well before his time.
Word Count: 1124
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