Both the Heptamaron by Marguerite of Navarre and Love Labor’s Lost by William Shakespeare depict love negatively, as if it were a disease of the mind. Each of these texts have unsatisfactory endings, realistically showing that love does not always end happily ever after. The Heptamaron is made up of short stories about love with different characters in each, while Love Labor’s Lost is about four men who take an oath to not talk to women but soon all fall in love by the end of the play. However, both texts share similarities while demonstrating the reality of love.

 

In Story Eighteen, the main character tests her lover’s affection and loyalty in many ways. The man remains patient throughout the story; eventually the woman believes his love is true and apologizes for putting him through so much. The moral of this story is that “Love is a subtle teacher” (214). Therefore, love can bring about traits in people they did not even know existed within themselves, such as patience in the case of the man. However, sometimes these characteristics are not always positive, as people can become obsessed or make rash decisions because they are blinded by love. The fact that love is personified in this story and many others demonstrates the powerful effect is has, much like an actual human being would have on another person.

 

Story Twenty-four of the Heptamaron highlights the dangers of testing someone’s limits when it comes to love. A handsome man named Elisor falls in love with the Queen but keeps his feelings a secret because she is married. He finally reveals the truth, telling her that he will, “love, revere and adore [her] not as a woman, but as [his] God on earth” (276). This demonstrates how deeply he respects her and longs for her to return these sentiments. However, she initially does not; instead the Queen thinks his love is a sickness. This attitude was normal for this time, as love was often viewed as an illness, especially when men were the ones showing their emotions. Expressing love and passion were usually seen as feminine characteristics. The Queen immediately writes off his feelings as a disease, thus attempting to diminish them and make it seem as though love is something that can simply be cured. She then decides to test Elisor’s love by asking him to go away and not talk to her for seven years. If he still loves her after this time, they can be together because she will be sure of how deeply he loves her.

 

Seven years later, Elisor returns from his solitude, but he no longer wants the Queen. She immediately “[weeps] tears of regret beyond belief” (282). This reaction shows that perhaps she should have accepted him when he still loved her rather than making him prove his feelings in such an extreme and cruel way. Through this unhappy ending, Marguerite of Navarre is telling the readers that the time we have to love can be fleeting and people should act upon it while they still have the chance.

 

Similarly, in Love Labor’s Lost, the women test their lovers’ limits in an extreme way. They make the men wait a full year without talking to them before they can pursue a romantic relationship. However, the play ends before the year is through, and so the readers are never able to know the outcome. There is a shift, however, when the princess’s father dies and a period of mourning begins. The last line continues this somber tone, which contrasts with the light-hearted banter that was characteristic throughout the entirety of the play. This inconclusive and somewhat dismal ending once again demonstrates that love does not always work out in the way people want and sometimes the happily ever after cannot exist.

 

Throughout these two texts, both Marguerite of Navarre and William Shakespeare demonstrate to their readers that love cannot always be perfect. Love is often viewed in a negative light, as at the time these were written many believed it was a form of sickness because it altered peoples’ minds. Despite the fact that these texts were written hundreds of years ago, they are still relevant to readers today because they illustrate the truth about love in an attempt to show that a fairytale ending usually does not exist. They are also warnings to the readers to take advantage of true feelings when people are still around because love can be fleeting.

Although social stereotypes have been prevalent in both the 16^th and 21^st centuries, it was less common for those living in the former to combat them publicly. In spite of this, Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost defies the generalizations made by society. The play’s progressive themes derive from its questioning of the validity of social classes and gender roles. Most scholars believe that Shakespeare’s own life influenced his intentions for these liberal ideas. Despite being famous, the author was not of high class and had to self-educate himself instead of attending university. Shakespeare’s achievements drove him to refute the superiority that the higher classes often boasted; he intended to unmask these misconceptions as a form of revenge. Writing Love’s Labour’s Lost was Shakespeare’s way of rebelling against the stereotypes of the society he lived in.

The author first uses the main character’s ignorance of love to demonstrate that one’s socioeconomic status is not indicative of one’s knowledge. This occurs when the King expresses the rules of the oath that he, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine make during their three years of study. “Therefore brave conquerors, for so you are, That war against your own affection, And the huge army of the world’s desires…You three, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, Have sworn for three years’ term, to live with me” (I, Lines 9-17). The main sacrifice that these men make in this pledge is their freedoms to be in relations with women. This belief that the men have the ability to wage a war on their own affections is one that Shakespeare emphasizes. His intention is to discredit their intelligence. Since the author has these characters make this oath with the intention on learning more about life, he generates irony as they are depriving themselves of confronting the opposite gender. This proves that although these men are of the highest social class, they are still capable of making false assumptions.

Shakespeare further targets the higher class through the relationship of Braggart and Page. Page, otherwise known as Braggart’s slave, demonstrates that the lower class can be knowledgeable. This is seen when Page gives Braggart advice on his love affairs. “If you swallowed love with singing love sometime through: nose as if you snuffed up love by smelling love with your penthouse-like o’er…these are complements, these are humors, these betray nice wenches that would be betrayed without these…do you note that most are affected by these” (IV, Line 638). Page’s statement expresses a well-developed view about love and what it can do to man. He acknowledges that all human beings are susceptible to this concept, and claims that understands love because of his own experiences. When Braggart accepts his servant’s observations, the form of their relationship changes in the eyes of the readers. Page is no longer inferior to Braggart, but an equal, as their exchange in this scene represents a brotherly bond. The text becomes more ironic when Page refers to him as a “negligible student” (Shakespeare IV, Line 646). These lessons that Page teaches show that the oath that the men take in the beginning of the story was ignorant. They believe that abstaining from being with women would develop their knowledge of the world; however, they failed as it paradoxically prevented them from obtaining understandings about love.

Similarly to the characters of lower classes, the females in Love’s Labour’s Lost are empowered by Shakespeare in order to defy certain gender stereotypes. He achieves this by making the women appear to be more intelligent. The plot of the play summarizes how four oblivious men believed that they could learn the complexities of the world by shutting themselves into years of study. Their foolishness is exploited by the women when they switch disguises to fool each of their respective lovers. “…And will they so? The Gallants shall be task’d: For Ladies we will every one be mask’d, And not a man of hem shall have the grace Despite of suit, to see a Lady’s face…And change your Favors too, so shall your Loves Woo contrary, deceived by these removes” (IX, Lines 1564-1573). During the time period that this play was written, women were labeled as inferior to men. The fact that Shakespeare writes a scene where people of this gender attempt to deceive men of high class, and accomplish this task, makes the text very progressive. His characterization of these figures supports the idea that Shakespeare wrote this play for his own satisfaction.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is not a play that should be ignored. This text does not stay within the plot it contains, but extends to the life of Shakespeare, who emits his values and experiences in the characters he creates. The characterization of the men of high class is one that portrays them as foolish. This effect is intended by the author, as he wants to prove that belonging to a certain social group does not determine one’s personal qualities.