• Who hid under the name of Shakespeare, the poet Christopher Marlowe,

Earl of Rutland or even Queen Elizabeth I - now it’s impossible to find

out for certain. The truth that, how A.S. Pushkin said: “How amazing
Shakespeare is! .. I feel dizzy after reading Shakespeare. I’m looking
into the abyss. ”
• *Date of original publication: 1593
*Awards: The musical made out of this play won 8 Drama Desk Awards
and 2 Tony Awards in 1972 including Best Musical and Best Book of a
Musical.
*Notable Facts: First performed between 1594 and 1595.
First printed in 1623, before then people would see the play and note
details and rewrite the play without Shakespeare’s consent
• The play focuses on two gentleman from Verona that are caught
between love and friendship
• SETTING: Verona, Italy in the 1500’s
It is set in the Elizabethan era which is the same era it was written in.
Milan is portrayed as this wonderful place of adventure that the characters
want to visit but leaving Verona makes them question their love life. “The
Forest” is portrayed as an escape from characters problems where they can
try and solve their romantic problems.
• THEMES: The friendship between two men is viewed as a more
elevated form of connectedness than the love between a man and
women.| Another theme is, how people act differently when they are in
love, as example- Julia dressing up like a man and Valentine and
Proteus going from best friends to battling over Silvia’s affection
• CONFLICT: both Proteus and Valentine are in love with Julia and must
decide between love and their friendship.
• PROTAGONIST: Proteus and Valentine
• ANTAGONIST: Love, Silvia gets in between two mens’ friendship and
causes them both to have hardships.
• SUMMARY: In the beginning of the play we are introduced to
Valentine and Proteus who are saying goodbyes as Valentine leaves to
find adventure in Milan, while Proteus stays in Verona tied to Julia, his
love. When Proteus was sent to the Duke’s court in Milan, he expresses
his love to Julia by promise ring. Meanwhile, Valentine has fallen in
love with Silvia, the Duke’s daughter. (INCITING INCIDENT) When
Proteus arrived in Milan he also felt in love with Silvia. So this creates
conflict between two friends, and meanwhile Julia disguising herself as
Sebastian and traveled to Milan to reunite with Proteus, and finding out
of his connection with Silvia. The peak was, when Valentine is exiled
 because of Proteus cunning solution to remove opponent, all because he
said to Silvia’s father, the Duke of Valentines plans to elope with his
daughter and became the king of outlaws. After that Proteus gave Silvia
a ring, by the help of Sebastian aka Julia, who get the same ring, when
he left to Verona. So when Duke finds out , that Silvia ran out to the
woods, he takes Proteus and Sebastian, and includes them in his
searching group. After they found and rescue Silvia, Proteus is trying to
convince her that she should drop Valentine and get with him. When
Sebastian faints and reveals his true identity as Julia, Proteus again
catch his feelings for Julia. And then as being the great guy, Valentines
gets his acceptance from Duke to be with Silvia. Everything ends
happily, as two friends decide to double their weddings.
• MAIN CHARACTERS: Are Proteus, Valentine, Silvia, Julia, Duke of
Milan
• Opinion about the play, conclusion, describing | Medieval two Veronts
in a modern view.|