Character Thursday: Berowne from Love's Labor's Lost

Hey, long time no see, Character Thursday! It has been a long time since I last made one. Now I must make another, because Berowne is just a very cute character, and very funny. I think he's the core interest of Love' Labor's Lost, Shakespeare's comedy.

David Tennant as Berowne

We first meet Berowne in the very first scene of the play, when the king proposes that he and his courtiers, Berowne included, should lead a solitary and studious life for three years. All of the king's friends agree – except for Berowne. He frankly says that it's impossible, useless, and boring. Yet, he signs the pact nonetheless. I can't forget his words while doing so:

“But I believe, although I seem so loath,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.”

Is he the last who keep it? Far from it. He falls in love with Rosaline. Now, I truly love how he rails about it like a madman, complaining that he shouldn't fall in love with such a plain lady. Rosaline is not beautiful, at least from his point of view, and he hates it that he should love her so much. Even the idea that he could fall in love enrages him.

“By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: well proved again o' my side! I will not love: if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O, but her eye,--by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already: the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin, if the other three were in.”

I find it very funny. Well, it doesn't matter much, though, since all his three friends fall in love with different ladies anyway. But the funny thing is how he mocks his friends (because he overhears their confessions of love while non of his friends know that he's in love as well). So below he haughtily says that all his friends have betrayed him because he is the only one that keeps his oath. 

“Not you to me, but I betray'd by you:
I, that am honest; I, that hold it sin
To break the vow I am engaged in;
I am betray'd, by keeping company
With men like men of inconstancy.
When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme?
Or groan for love? or spend a minute's time
In pruning me? When shall you hear that I
Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye,
A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist,
A leg, a limb?”

Overall, Berowne is a funny, witty guy. Very much a Shakespearean comic man. He reminds me of Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, which I will feature one day without fail. He's a nice guy, but so frank and bold. Not even a king could stop him to speak his mind. That's another thing that I love from him. His excuses are infinite. Even his friends ask him to find a good excuse to betray their oath of not seeing women. He finds one, too, although for me it's still a shameful excuse. It's just a comedy anyway.

What I don't like, well. I don't like that he doesn't get his lady. :p

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Character Thursday

Adalah book blog hop di mana setiap blog memposting tokoh pilihan dalam buku yang sedang atau telah dibaca selama seminggu terakhir (judul atau genre buku bebas).

- Kalian bisa menjelaskan mengapa kalian suka/benci tokoh itu, sekilas kepribadian si tokoh, atau peranannya dalam keseluruhan kisah.

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- Kalau buku itu sudah difilmkan, kalian juga bisa mencantumkan foto si tokoh dalam film, atau foto aktor/aktris yang kalian anggap cocok dengan kepribadian si tokoh.

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