Comedy in Loves Labours Lost

Discuss the aspects of comedy in Loves Labours Lost. Give an example and explain why it is funny.


There is much comedy in this play. I think my main examples are the scholars and their worthless oath, the princess and her ladies, and Costard. In the beginning, the men decide to take an oath to avoid women, seeing them as distractions. Then women come and they're just like forget that rule! The princess comes hoping she can find some sort of man who can take over for her father when he passes away. But then she finds out about the oath and is like okay, really? She just needs someone. Instead she uses her wit to make fun of the men for their dumb oath. It is also very funny that the men are all hiding their love letters from each other to their ladies. They specially don't want Biron to know because they think he's following in the rules, but actually he is about as love sick as the rest of them. The guys decide to forget the silly oath and continue to woo the women. The guys wear costumes at the ball and thanks to Boyet, the women know about the costumes so they have a little something planned in order to confuse the men. Now lets talk about Costard. He basically is a fool especially when he gets all the letters mixed up and everyone knows about their passion for the women including the ladies and Holofermez and Nathaniel, who spent their time critiquing and making comments on the letters. So all in all, the men are lovesick, the women have them wrapped around their little fingers, and Costard is still and to this day a fool. They all play a huge role as the humor in this play.