ABSTRACT
Stanley Wells assessed Shakespeare’s skills as a craftsman in Two Gentlemen of Verona. Among its most serious flaws, Wells named certain “organic deficiencies,” chiefly those resulting from “Shakespeare’s failure to devise a plot which would enable characters conceived within the conventions of romantic love to behave in a manner compatible with these conventions.” Too often he says, “the situation is at variance with the character” (166-67). A valuable observation, and in this essay I would like to take it a step further, by attempting to discern the causes of this dramaturgical “fault.” What are the young dramatist’s goals in constructing a plot episode or “situation”? What is Shakespeare doing or not doing that creates a shattering disjunction between the situation and the characters involved in it?
