Résolution dans Peines d'amour perdues

COMPOSITION ÉCRITE EN LANGUE ANGLAISE

"Resolution in Love's Labour's Lost"

The subject introduces the notion of "resolution" present in the play written by William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost. It is a complex notion as it entails different acceptations: it does not only cover the meaning of being resolute, but it also refers to other meanings, like being committed to do something, or in literature, the part of a literary work in which the complications of the plot are resolved, or even in law, a court decision. So, we need to understand all these acceptations, to be able to treat the above-mentioned topic, or more specifically the different types of "resolutions" in Shakespeare's play, Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Indeed, the word "resolution" derives from late fourteenth-century Middle English, itself derived from Old French, meaning "process of reducing things into simpler forms", according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, published by Douglas Harper in 2014, which gives us a very concrete, although obsolete, meaning. However, Love’s Labour’s Lost having been written between 1593 and 1596, we can very well consider this acceptation as well-known by William Shakespeare and even present in the play. Even if the term "resolution" appears here in the singular, it is not totally impossible to examine its different acceptations through different characters' "resolutions", and even extend this to the playwright's "resolution". Furthermore, a plural usage could in any case stress an idea of division, even opposition, which can therefore be more explicitly examined through specific characters in this comedy.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is indeed a comedy in which an edict against consorting with women and barring them from the King’s Court is the dominant theme of the play. However, the play is well known for being a conversation comedy, in which there are more battles of wits than real action. The main characters do indeed battle against each other: the King of Navarre, who through his edict of a three-year study, orders his three men of duty to follow him; one of them, Berowne, who is not at all convinced of the real meaning of this commitment, shows indeed his irresolution to follow it; then, the four of them forget throughout the play their commitment owing to the presence of the Princess of France and her three attending ladies at the King's court; next, the Princess is firmly determined to provoke and oppose the four men in a feast of language; and last but not least, there is William Shakespeare's will to present us, spectators, with a criticism of the society of his time.

What are the male characters' "resolution" and "irresolution" opposed to the female ones'? How are these "resolutions" included in the term's different acceptations, mentioned at the beginning of this paper? How does the playwright's "resolution" appear in his play?

To answer these questions, we will focus first on the first "resolution" presented at the beginning of the play, the one taken by the King of Navarre, and the response it triggered among the men of the court. We will then, in a second part, analyse the opposition this "resolution" triggered among the female characters of the play and how this leads at the same time to the plot's "resolution". Finally, in a third part, we will examine the playwright's "resolution".

The first acceptation of the word "resolution" this paper will examine is the one that opens the play of Love's Labour's Lost, with the King's "resolution". He and three of his closest followers vow to turn their backs on mirth, banqueting, and female company and devote themselves exclusively to higher learning for three years. This "resolution" consists in the reading of the formal statement of the decision put before the assembly, and indirectly the audience of the play right in the opening lines of the play (act I, scene 1, 1-25). Indeed, the King expresses here his royal trait of being resolute, showing a firmness of purpose and a distinguishing feature for a King, being the head of the government, whose strong decisions cannot be discussed. It is therefore an oath for full-time study for three years his three best men have to take, showing thus their "resolution" to get enlightened. The audience is therefore introduced since act I, scene 1 to the seriousness of this resolve, and then, through the same scene of this same act, to the dire consequences for those who won't follow it, through the example of Costard courting Jaquenetta and his failure to justify himself in front of the King. Therefore this situation lets the spectators know of the strictness of this "resolution".

However, the examination of the word "resolution" cannot been undertaken without a closer look at its antonym, irresolution, in the meaning of doubt, uncertainty, or even reluctance, which is also present in Love's Labour's Lost plot. Indeed, even if the tone given at the beginning of the play may sound serious with the proclamation of the King's edict, the comical undertones appear quickly as the King's firm determination is endangered since Act 1, scene 1, 138-9, through the announcement of the arrival of the Princess of France at the King of Navarre's court. As his full intention is not to forswear his own oath, the King intends to lodge her in the field rather than break his vow and allow women in his own court.

However, the King's "resolution" is immediately put to the test through the indecision and doubts, even reluctance of one of his best men, Berowne, expressed in act I, scene 1: "To seek the light of truth, while truth the while / Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look. / Light seeking light doth light of light beguile;" (I.1.77-9). Using the imagery of light, Berowne, being well-known for his wit, emits doubts on the amount of light one receives from studying, which could in turn induce blindness to the eyes for a too long and firm conduct full of studies and devoid of pleasures. "So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,  / Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes." (I.1.80-1) The antithesis between light and darkness has a symbolical meaning. Darkness refers to the mystery surrounding the knowledge that the enthusiastic students look for. Berowne also alludes to the material aspect of the question. Pouring upon books at night, by the light of a candle, instead

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