Editing Love's Labour's Lost (section)

====Masculine desire====
Masculine desire structures the play and helps to shape its action. The men's sexual appetite manifests in their desire for fame and honour; the notion of women as dangerous to masculinity and intellect is established early on. The King and his Lords' desires for their idealized women are deferred, confused, and ridiculed throughout the play. As the play comes to a close, their desire is deferred yet again, resulting in an increased exaltation of the women.<ref name=Breitenberg>{{cite journal|last=Breitenberg|first=Mark|title=The Anatomy of Masculine Desire in ''Love's Labor's Lost''|journal=[[Shakespeare Quarterly]]|year=1992|volume=43|issue=4|pages=430–449|doi=10.2307/2870863|jstor=2870863}}</ref>

Critic Mark Breitenberg commented that the use of idealistic poetry, popularized by [[Petrarch]], effectively becomes the textualized form of the male gaze.<ref name=Breitenberg/> In describing and idealizing the ladies, the King and his Lords exercise a form of control over women they love. Don Armado also represents masculine desire through his relentless pursuit of Jacquenetta. The theme of desire is heightened by the concern of increasing female sexuality throughout the [[Renaissance]] period and the consequent threat of [[cuckoldry]]. Politics of love, marriage, and power are equally forceful in shaping the thread of masculine desire that drives the plot.<ref name=Breitenberg/>