Love's Labour's Lost

The tensions between fantasy and reality are explored in Love’s Labour’s Lost, bringing together many of the play’s key ideas. Shakespeare explores how people create fantasy and how this fantasy interconnects with reality both in the masculine pursuit of love and through the complexity of language.

Make-up is mentioned throughout the play as a vehicle for discussing Fantasy Versus Reality. It was popular in the Elizabethan court, and the men stress that while it creates great beauty, this is a temporary fantasy: Berowne attacks the women other than Rosaline by saying, “Your mistresses dare never come in rain / For fear their colors should be washed away” (4.3.290-91). They judge this fantastical beauty to be less valuable than reality. However, Shakespeare exposes their own role in creating this fantasy of an ideal woman, as all the Lords buy into it, and even create it, as they hyperbolize the women’s beauty and project idealized versions of themselves as poetic lovers in their sonnets. Longaville, for example, asks, “[W]hat fool is not so wise / To lose an oath to win a paradise” (4.3.72-73), elevating himself through his depiction of Maria.

Shakespeare suggests that the Lords’ presentations of themselves in their sonnets are fantastical using irony: They all grapple with the oxymoron that in swearing fidelity, they all break an oath. He suggests that their oath was fantastical in the first place, ignoring the reality of their political obligations. Their oath buys into a masculine romantic fantasy in which the only role women are assigned is as their love interests. Shakespeare shows that they have to face reality as the Princess’s arrival in a diplomatic capacity immediately forces them all to break the oaths.

He also presents their overall goal as a fantasy: They seek to overcome death by achieving fame, representing a type of immortality. This was a popular subject in Elizabethan literature, including in Shakespeare’s sonnets. However, the play’s ending proves that death is inescapable: The Princess’s father’s death brings an abrupt halt to all proceedings, leaving the narrative suspended. He also uses the device of a play within a play, a common feature in Elizabethan drama, in the theatrical staging of the Nine Worthies. This set piece draws its humor from the juxtaposition of the noble, mythical figures being presented with the ordinary, flawed performers, who frequently make mistakes, making it impossible for their audience to suspend their disbelief. The descent of the performance into chaos comically highlights the gulf between the temporary fantasy of theatre and the real world that must ultimately prevail.

The performance of the Worthies is a microcosm for Shakespeare’s meta-theatrical examination of Love’s Labour’s Lost itself. He draws attention to its status as a piece of fiction through irony, as Berowne promises never to recite pre-penned speeches again (5.2.438)—something the actor is doing in that moment. Shakespeare also uses common tropes in Elizabethan literature throughout the play more generally, as the Lords buy into fantastical popular narratives, including in their masculine pursuit of love. These fantasies are a source of enjoyment for the characters, who dance, flirt, and play games: Shakespeare celebrates the meaning and connection that fantasy can offer, often through the complexity of language.

However, in the final Act, Love’s Labour’s Lost abruptly subverts its own genre, as the neat, happy ending it has built toward is deferred, with Berowne explicitly noting, “Our wooing doth not end like an old play” (5.2.547). Shakespeare dismantles the fantasy of the play to suggest that reality is more complex, and that it can only temporarily be escaped through theatre. Nonetheless, the play does not become a tragedy: He leaves the ending open, suggesting that life continues afterwards, and offering a note of optimism about the characters’ romantic unions.