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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.1589  Monday, 11 August 2003

From:           Donald Jellerson <DCatrest@comcast.net>
Date:           Saturday, 9 Aug 2003 13:37:18 -0700
Subject:        Denouements of Forgiveness and Gender

Hello SHAKSPEReans,

I'm new to this list, and relatively new to the world of Shakespeare
scholarship.  Please forgive my inevitable naiveté.

I've been thinking about the place of Two Gentlemen of Verona in
Shakespeare's works, and it has occurred to me that some of you could
help point me in the right direction.  Concerning the maligned
denouement of TGV, I understand the arguments of, for example, R. G.
Hunter and Alan R. Velie: an understanding of plot devices derived from
Miracle plays or New Comedy and adapted to an Elizabethan conception of
Christian repentance / forgiveness allows us to more fully appreciate
the perfunctory resolution of this play.  We may not like the ending any
better, these critics seem to say, but we may come to see that
Shakespeare might have gotten away with this in front of the audiences
of his day.

I'm willing to concede that the denouement of TGV as we have it may be
truncated, pro forma, or simply "misguided," as Hunter says. (Though
"allegorical," as others have claimed, seems a dubious critical leap.)
Perhaps this play is a failed first attempt at romantic comedy.  Even
so, there seems to me an important element left out of the discussion:
gender.

If TGV is a first attempt at romantic comedy (arguably a Shakespearean
invention), we might note that primacy is clearly given to the
relationship between the two men.  The women become shockingly
irrelevant, even interchangeable.  Yes, yes, critics say, but this is
simply a literary reflex that must place male friendship above
heterosexual love.  We all know, of course, the literary precedents
here.  But what about The Merchant of Venice?  As a former professor of
mine, William Streitberger, puts it, "much of the action in MV has to do
with reversing what [Shakespeare] does in the end of TGV... prioritizing
heterosexual love and establishing women as the ones that provide
forgiveness."  I agree.  Then, by the time Shakespeare gets to Much Ado,
for example, the reversal is complete - he has found the pattern of
romantic comedy that will persist through Winter's Tale.

I have a few questions about this.  Does it seem fair to treat the
pattern of Shakespeare's denouements of forgiveness (vis-à-vis gender)
as an evolution starting at TGV and subsequently reversing?  Can anyone
point me to critical work that has been done on this subject?  Your
thoughts are appreciated.

Donald Jellerson

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