The Masquerade Essay, Research Paper

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.