The Two Gentlemen of Verona Essay Example

The Two Gentlemen of Verona Essay Example The Two Gentlemen of Verona Essay The Two Gentlemen of Verona Essay Darko Karamatic Class: Humanities Professor: Michael Martin Date: November 1, 2009 The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare is a huge art, and Shakespeare as the man that invented its own language of writing is definitely one of the best artists ever. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona which in one sense seems to be unreal story in another is very real. The relationship between best friends as in this section is reduced to such a cynical attitude as it is between Proteus and Valentine. The Two Gentlemen of Verona Proteus and Valentine, known as best friends and their infatuation to the same woman named Silva has led them into trouble. Proteus, a character who in my opinion is a hypocrite and false friend was also able to betray his best friend, Julia and everyone in his vicinity. When Valentine was supposed to go to Milan he also called his best friend Proteus to come with him, but he refused to go. He refused his best friend because of the love he felt towards Julia, but in the meantime his father was persuaded him to leave Verona and go to Milan to gain some life experience. Love between Proteus and Julia was extremely big, it seemed that the two of them were alive for one another. Since Proteus had to leave Verona in a sign of eternal fidelity he exchanged rings with Silvia. After his arrival in Milan Proteus soon forget on Julia and fall in love with the love of his best friends Silvia. As to his best friend, Valentine was not hiding anything from Proteus, and he was not expecting his cunning and jealousy. He told to Proteus all about his visiting Silvia and the love they felt between each other. He also told him about her father, the Duke of Milan, and that he wants her to marry wealthy guy, in this case Thurio. Silvia and Valentine were in love until nasty Proteus did not decide to do anything in his power just to get Silvia’s love. Proteus has decided to go and tell everything to Silvia’s father, all about the relationship between Valentine and Silvia and their plans to escape Milan together. When Duke heard all this stuff he was very surprised because he thought they were just friends. Proteus also asked Duke ot to tell anyone how he found out about this, because Valentine was his best friend.. The Duke immediately wanted to remove Valentine away from his daughter and he did it, he banished Valentine from Milan. In the meantime, Proteus was faking that he wanted to help Thurio to win Silva’s love. In conversation with Proteus, Thurio was persuaded to pay musicians and play serenade under Silvia’s window. After Thurio finally decided to do so, b efore the musicians started playing, Proteus told him to hide and leave him alone in order to help him to win Silvia. Of course it was just a trick for poor Thurio, because Proteus’ intent was to make Silvia think how he prepared all this show for her. At the same time Julia has decided to go to Milan and look for her love Proteus. After her arrival to Milan she found out that Proteus was already in love with another woman and was very disappointed. Since she did not know what to do she decides to disguise as a man and soon after she became his page, called Sebastian. In one situation Proteus sends Sebastian to deliver a letter to Silvia and with the letter he also sends her a ring (the same one which he got from Julia as a sign of great love). After valentine was banished from Milan, he was attacked by outlaws. Instead of just robbing him they started talking and Valentine lied how he was banished from the city because he killed a man. The outlaws told Valentine how they were gentlemen too but they were banished and now they live in the forest. Besides that, they told Valentine that he must become their leader or they will have to kill him. Since Valentine did not have another choice valentine agreed and became one of them, actually more than that, he became their leader. As every comedy has happy end this one was the same way. After Silvia decided to go to the city she was comforted by the outlaws who took her to their leader Valentine. Although I really do not like Proteus as a person, Jeff Bukovinsky had fantastic play. His expression of emotions was just amazing. For instance, when he managed to deceive his best friend, Valentine, as well as the Duke. Furthermore, his falling in love practically every five minutes is just unreal and silly, but he still shows it with so many great importances as it is the very last one. The Proteus as a person is just a garbage, nasty character and it is not worthy anything but the actually acting by Bukovinsky was performed just excellent and deserves all the credit. In addition, the part which I (with not big knowledge) consider as the best played by Bukovinsky was one where Silvia and Proteus were in the forest. There, after refusing his love Proteus having no other choice threatened to rape Silvia (â€Å"Ill force thee yield to my desire†). At the very beginning of the play the audience seemed very excited and tried not to miss anything, and the excitement increased as the show went on. In the second part of the play everyone was paying sharp attention, especially at the moment when Duke found out about Silvia’s and Valentine’s hidden love. Everyone seemed itchy and was waiting for the end even though most of them knew what was going to happen, they were eager to see the scene. The most emotional scene in audience was when the Duke approved love between his daughter and Valentine. I personally think that the play left much more impressions and was much more interesting than actual reading to me. At the play I felt like I was so into it, and could not move my eyes from the stage. At some point, I understood everything that was going on which was not true in case while I was reading the book. Hence, all the credit from me goes to the actual play. Arrangement of characters on stage and just carrying out the performance was fantastic and at the same time professional. I did not notice any single mistake by the actors, and every step they were taking seemed like taken with a big confidence, like they were doing it forever.