The Two Gentlemen of Verona Theme

Love

Love makes men and women do some pretty strange things in Two Gentlemen of Verona. It turns men and women into fickle creatures and has the potential to transform men into unrecognizable and lovesick fools, or worse. At the same time, in Valentine and Silvia, we see two young lovers willing to risk everything to be together – an idea that Shakespeare will later develop in Romeo and Juliet . Romantic love between men and women, of course, is also pitted against the bonds of male friendship.

Violence

Two Gentlemen of Verona culminates in an attempted rape that is narrowly averted and quickly forgiven. In fact, the threat of sexual violence seems to echo all throughout the play. Proteus's attempt to rape Silvia is preceded by a reference to the mythical Philomela's rape by Tereus (5.4.1), Valentine makes the outlaws swear to "do no outrages/ On silly women" (4.1.12), and Julia disguises herself as "Sebastian" so she can avoid "loose encounters of lascivious men" (2.7.4). In the play, the threat of rape seems to be symptomatic of a world in which men see women as objects to be possessed, stolen, or bestowed upon other men as "gifts."

Society and Class

While some earlier sixteenth-century plays portray servants as shadows of the main characters (minor characters and servants often mimicked their masters' behaviors), Shakespeare does something relatively new in Two Gentlemen of Verona. In the play, the servants' attitudes towards marriage, love, loyalty, and social standing often call attention to the foibles of their masters. Shakespeare, then, is probably the first playwright to portray servants who are capable of defining the main characters. For example, Lance's devotion to his dog Crab draws our attention to Proteus's disloyalty to Julia and Valentine. The servants in Two Gentlemen are more than mere sounding boards and offer much more than mere comic relief.

Friendship

Two Gentlemen of Verona is often described as a "celebration" of male friendship. In the play, male bonds are threatened by heterosexual romance and one man's capacity for betrayal. While some critics read the play as an attempt to reconcile the tension between friendship and heterosexual love, others see a play in which male bonds are given priority over all other relationships. We can also read the play as an exploration of common sixteenth-century attitudes. For many prominent writers and philosophers, male friendship was considered the most elevated form of human connectedness. Shakespeare's portrayal of male bonds in Two Gentlemen echoes throughout his other works – especially the Sonnets, The Merchant of Venice, and The Winter's Tale.