Sublimating Sexual Desire in Love's Labour's Lost

Love's Labour's Lost is a play written in 1594 or 1595 by the Elizabethan poet and playwright William Shakespeare. This play is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays and an example of comedy, despite the absence of marriage in the conclusion of the final act like Shakespeare's other comedies e.g. Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night. Significant for introducing themes of loyalty, and the value of oaths, Love's Labour's Lost is most important for its treatment of male heterosexual desire and the role of willpower in sexuality. This play is also an excellent example of the importance of sublimation of sexual desire, or the transformation of lust into the creation of art, or, in the case of Love's Labour's Lost, Petrarchan poetry. Don Armado is in love with the local, country wench Jaquenetta and sets his love to paper: "I must employ him in a letter to my love [Jaquenetta]" (Act III, Scene I, Line 5). Just as Shakespeare turns his passion to paper, Armado puts his love in a letter to win his love, Jaquenetta, an instance of sublimation. However, other male characters mistakenly attempt to repress sexual desire in a futile attempt to subvert their own natural, empowering sexual drives. The King of Navarre, Ferdinand, offers a vow of chastity to his men in a strange attempt to stifle his and his noble's sexuality "

Armado is a minor character who is used by Shakespeare to show the value of sublimating one's desires, but so is the secondary character Berowne, who attempts to illuminate the King of his ill-fated journey to a three year period of celibacy and the repression of his sexuality. Berowne initially attempts to inform the King of the damage of denying pleasure:

"As not to see a woman in that term,

which I hope well is not enrolled there:

And one day in a week to touch no food,

And but one meal on every day beside;

The which I hope is not enrolled there:

And then to sleep but three hours in the night,

And make a dark night too of half the day,

Which I hope well is not enrolled there.

O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,

Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep." (Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 37-48).

This strategy does not work and the vow is sealed, but still Berowne is the voice of insight and he attempts to steer the King to the positivity of sublimation "to pore upon a book to seek the light of truth:" (Act I, Scene 1, Lines 74-75). Truth is found in the pursuit of knowledge and through self-awareness and not through the denial of needs "Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes" (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 79). To turn a blind eye to sexual desire leads to the denial of oneself and the possibility of love. Although, Berowne realizes and expresses the faults of denying sexual desire he is unaware of the benefits of turning love into something greater than simple sexuality. Instead, of sublimating his sexual needs he turns all of his energies over to the women to do with as they wish: "our love being yours, the error that love makes is likewise yours" (Act V, Scene II, Lines 761-762). Berowne turns these energies over to his affection, Rosaline - a noblewoman and in turn disempowers himself, while forgoing the possibility of transcending basic, primitive sexual needs for something greater and more worthy like the pursuit of playwriting, or spirituality.

Returning to Armado we have a character who is transferring his desire for Jaquenetta into a Petrarchan sonnet "for you manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes of folio [books]" (Act I, Scene II, Lines 172-175). Armado is transferring his desire for Jaquenetta into something greater to be enjoyed and recognized as something great by others and this is a gift to both himself and the woman he desires. Mark Breitenberg of the Shakespeare Quarterly says that Armado's sonnet writing is a form of entrapment to capture the object of his, Armado's, desire "the play's numerous references to 'seeing' women are perhaps only exceeded by the men's 'literary' attempts to apprehend them in letters and sonnets" (11). However, the purpose of sublimating desire is not to capture, or possess another, but to express affection and sexuality in a healthy manner, which is beneficial to the expressor and to those who see the expression of desire. Breitenberg makes a good argument that the use of language in the play is an expression of "erotic friction [or]...wantonness" (11), but language is temporary and intangible, while sublimation is more permanent e.g. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel or from Shakespeare's Sonnet CXVI "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom" (Lines 11-12). Shakespeare's sonnets of immortality "when in eternal lines to time thou growest" (Sonnet XVIII, Line 12) have lasted over four hundred years and are a testament to the sublimation of desire. As well, a true expression of love is not merely through brief sexual interludes, but through eternal expression of love and desire. Armado shows an understanding of this concept by writing sonnets to his love; however, he falters in the final act "I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three year" (Act V, Scene III, Lines 872-873). This is an obvious metaphor for sex, or the repression of sexual urges for three years and while Armado vows to stay loyal to the one he loves, he does not propose any strategies to shorten the duration of time apart, nor what he will do in order to sublimate his desires while Jaquenetta is absent. Without a strategy to channel his sexual energy into creativity, or something higher like spirituality Armado is likely to falter in his vow of chastity, just as the King and noblemen in the first act fail to hold their oath, even for a year.

The conclusion for Love's Labour's Lost is open-ended; however, there are some clues to a theme of sublimating sexual desire in the play's final song and sonnet. The initial song entitled "Spring" talks of women adorning themselves in brightly coloured clothes, while the cuckoo "mocks married men" (Act V, Scene II, Lines 884-898). The second song is titled "Winter." This sonnet uses metaphor to discuss activities like bringing wood to a fire "and Tom bears logs into the hall" (Act V, Scene II, Lines 903) and cutting wood "and coughing drowns the parson's saw" (Act V, Scene II, 912). The interpretation of the final songs is somewhat oblique and requires careful attention, but based on the rest of the play, in which women are portrayed as objects of desire and men the desirous, then the imagery of beautiful flowers mocking married men would be examples of sexual temptation. The beautiful flowers tempt the "married men" to "meadows with delight" (Act V, Scene II, Lines 886-899). Delight is an allusion to sexuality, while the flowers are metaphors for beautiful maidens, which beckon the married man. However, a married man must sublimate desire even, or especially in marriage in order to uphold his oath to his wife. Although a married man might be tempted to stray from the one he loves by the "maidens [who] bleach their summer smocks," (Act V, Scene II, Line 896) there is a solution. The many examples of activity and farm work e.g. milking cows, shepherding in "Winter" act as an outlet for the married man to channel his lustful needs into something positive and beneficial to the one he has sworn an oath to. The wife does the same, sublimating her desires for others by transforming sexual temptation into positive activity "while greasy Joan doth keel the pot" (Act V, Scene II, Line 919). The sublimation of both character's sexual needs leads to greater respect and to greater self-actualization for both men and women, which is one of many themes within Love's Labour's Lost, but also one of the most important.

Love's Labour's Lost is almost more tragedy than comedy, as many of the male characters do not realize that oaths of celibacy and acts of sexual repression are detrimental to their health and unproductive to their development. However, Shakespeare realizes this and his introduction of the characters Armado, who writes sonnets, and Berowne who petitions the King not to pursue celibacy "for every man with his affects [desire] is born, not by might master'd, but by special grace [sublimation]," (Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 150-151) is not a mere coincidence, but a deliberate act. The theme of sublimation of sexuality in Shakespeare's work is best realized by looking at his breadth of work as a whole, with Sonnets XVIII and CXVI most strongly utilizing themes of sublimation . Sonnets XVIII and CXVI state that immortality is found through the expression of love, or sexual desire through the written word. As well, the final two songs, "Spring" and "Winter" restate the recurring theme of sublimation through metaphor, as married men are encouraged to seek answers in hard work, which distracts from temptation; women are encourage to do the same. Of course, Shakespeare's ability to sublimate his own sexual desire into some of the most beautiful sonnets and plays of all time is the best example of sublimation. This ability is seen in the characters and in the themes of Love's Labour's Lost, which is a testament to his deliberate writing.

Works Consulted

Adams, Jennifer L., and Rom Harre. The Self and Others: Positioning Individuals and Groups. N.p.: n.p., 2003. 181-87. Print.

Best, Michael. "Spring and Winter: A Surprise Ending." UVic. UVic, 20 Apr. 1997. Web. 12 Aug. 2010.

Birenbaum, Harvey. "The Princess and the Picket: Love's Labour's Lost on the Problem of Will." Mosaic 36.1 (2003): 103-20. Print.

Breitenberg, Mark. "The Anatomy of Masculine Desire in Love's Labour's Lost." Shakespeare Quarterly 43.4 (1992): 430-49. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "Shakespeare Sonnet 116." Albion. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2010.

Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 18." Sonnet 18. N.p., Feb. 2010. Web. 13 Aug. 2010.