A Satiric Burlesque on Humanist Education in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Abstract

Jang Hyun NamShakespeare's play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, has often been regarded as one of his weakest efforts. It has been criticised by many readers and often branded as a strange combination of the 'ludicrous' and 'careless'. However, a closer examination of the text reveals that this may have been a deliberate attempt by Shakespeare who, by balancing the ludicrous and the serious, sought to give his drama an educative function. Shakespeare's educational method is closely related to the ideal teaching methods of humanists, who advocated 'teaching through amusement.' This aspect can be regarded as more appropriate when one of the themes Shakespeare treats in The Two Gentlemen of Verona is the humanist education of gentlemen in Elizabethan England. The reality of education and the development of 'gentlemen' are parodied at a number of levels, while comic elements remain undamaged. Examining the goals and relationships of the principal characters in the context of humanist education serves to demonstrate that the play is not just a bizzare mixture of seriousness and ludicrousness but in fact a well-planned drama. Through the use of satire and parody, Shakespeare was able to connect with the audience to both entertain them, and educate them with regard to the reality of the education of gentlemen in his day. It is also a very effective way to demonstrate the difference between the ideal and the real images of perfect gentlemen as represented by Proteus and Valentine in their own separate ways.