The Two Gentlemen of Verona William Shakespeare by: Maeve Thornton and Deja Uzzell
*Date of original publication: 1593 *Awards: The musical made out of this play won 8 Drama Desk Awards and 2 Tony Awards in 1972 including Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. *Notable Facts: First performed between 1594 and 1595. First printed in 1623, before then people would see the play and note details and rewrite the play without Shakespeare’s consent
The play focuses on two gentlemen from Verona that are caught between love and friendship.
Setting: *Verona, Italy in the 1500’s *It is set in the Elizabethan era which is the same era it was written in. *Milan is portrayed as this wonderful place of adventure that the characters want to visit but leaving Verona makes them question their love life. “The forest” is portrayed as an escape from the characters problems where they can try and solve their romantic problems.
Themes The friendship between two men is viewed as a more elevated form of connectedness than the love between a man and women. Another theme is the strange things people will do when they are in love (examples: Julia dressing up like a man and Valentine and Proteus going from best friends to battling over Silvia’s affection.
Conflict: Both Proteus and Valentine are in love with Julia and must decide between love and their friendship. Protagonist: Proteus and Valentine Antagonist: Love, Silvia gets in between the two mens’ friendship and causes them both to have hardships.
Summary In the beginning of the play we are introduced to Valentine and Proteus who are saying their goodbyes as Valentine leaves to find adventure in Milan and Proteus stays in Verona tied to Julia, his love. Proteus is sent to the Duke’s court in Milan and before leaving he expresses his love to Julia with a promise ring. Meanwhile in Milan Valentine has fallen in love with the Duke’s daughter, Silvia.
(Inciting Incident) When Proteus arrives in Milan he too falls in love with Silvia. This creates conflict between the two men and meanwhile Julia disguises herself as Sebastian and travels to Milan to be reunited with Proteus only to find him enchanced with another woman. (Climax) Valentine is exiled because Proteus told the Duke of his plans to elope with Silvia and becomes king of the outlaws. Sebastian a.k.a Julia is sent by Proteus to give Silvia a ring (the same one that he gave to Julia).
When the Duke finds out that his daughter ran to the woods he gets together a search party including Proteus and Sebastian (Julia). When Proteus catches up to Julia he tries to assault her but is stopped by Valentine. The two men then hash out their problems and Sebastian “faints” revealing his true identity as Julia. Proteus then falls back in love with Julia and then the Duke presents Silvia as a gift to Valentine for being a great guy. In the end Valentine suggest a double wedding and they all head off to the Duke’s place for a big reception.
Main Characters *Proteus (loves Julia and Silvia) *Valentine (loves silvia and is friends with Proteus) *Silvia (the Duke of Milan’s daughter) *Julia (disguises herself as Sebastian) *Lucetta (waiting woman to Julia) *Duke of Milan (Silvia’s father)
Quotes “I knew him as myself; for from our infancy We have conversed and spent our hours together.” (2.4.62-63) This quote said by Valentine reiterates how good of friends he and Proteus were and how long they knew each other. (this friendship is one of the central themes in the play)
“I leave myself, my friends and all, for love. Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me, Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought; Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.” (1.1.67-71) This quote from Proteus is important because it focuses on how much he has changed because he loves Julia, and how all of those changes are bad.
Unusual Words and References *methinks: it seems to me *parle: talk *malady: sickness or deformity *exchequer: a royal or national treasury *fealty: a tenant’s sworn loyalty to a lord *braggardism: act of bragging
Personal Reaction Throughout the play I could recognize some of the humor in it but I feel like most of it probably went over my head because the language is hard for me to grasp. Also I got confused on some of the plot events because once again I could not understand the wording. But after clearing some things up I thought the play had a very interesting plot line and sub plots with each character that is fun to read. The play was clever and if done the right way it would probably be fun to see.