The King's Motivation
At the beginning of the play, King Ferdinand lays out his plan to transform his court into a scholarly academy, asking his lords to join him in acts of temperance and abstinence. When he reveals his motivation behind this transformation, however, it has nothing to do with knowledge or intellectual growth. Instead, Ferdinand seeks only fame, and hopes to bolster his reputation through this three-year sacrifice.
The Oath
The King's oath that he and his lords swear to uphold includes fasting, sleeping no more than three hours per night, and avoiding all dalliances with women for three years. While they all agree to the oath, it becomes clear to the audience beforehand that the oath will be broken almost immediately. Biron's protestations foreshadow the challenges the men will face in upholding their oath, and in a moment of dramatic irony, the audience knows more about what is to come than the rest of the characters.
The Princess's Arrival
The timing in Love's Labour's Lost is important for emphasizing the irony of the plot: almost as soon as the King and his three lords swear off women altogether, the Princess of France arrives in Navarre with three of her ladies-in-waiting. This timing confirms the audience's expectation that the oath is soon to be broken.
The Ladies' Switch
At the end of the play, the King and his lords fail to trick the women into thinking they are really Russian men come to visit, but the women successfully dupe the men into confusing their identities and wooing the wrong women. While this trick is afoot, the audience is aware of the ladies' plan, which the men discover later after they return without their disguises.
