Shakespeare, it ain’t
I’M nOt sure it’s quite right to call ItV’s Love Island ‘Shakespearean’ in nature, as writer Elizabeth Day has. I would say it’s more Chaucerian, both in tone and content.
After all, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) was instrumental in legitimising the use of vulgar English in his work — and the contestants of Love Island are nothing if not vulgar.
In fact, the entire premise brings to mind the most famous of his Canterbury tales, that of the Wife of Bath, who narrates the story of a knight charged by Queen Guinevere with resolving the conundrum of what it is that women most desire.
the answer? not money, fine possessions, flattery or sexual pleasure, but independence and sovereignty over their husbands. If Love Island is anything to go by, looks like women’s standards have fallen considerably since the 1390s.