This short story by A.J. Cronin presents before us the story of two Veronese adolescents Nicola, aged about thirteen, and Jacopo, aged about twelve. The title ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ has been used by the author only to redefine the meaning of the word ‘gentlemen’ and to express his admiration for two Veronese young men who are waging a relentless and epic battle to save their elder sister Lucia, aged about twenty years. She is their only relative left in their world.
Lucia is suffering from tuberculosis of the spine. She has no one el to take care of her except her two younger brothers — Nicola and Jacopo. She would have undoubtedly succumbed to her fatal *** if her two young brothers had not admitted her in a hospital and given her timely medical attention and care. Since the treatment she got in the hospital was quite expensive, and they had to make payments every week, the two young men had to work day and night to earn enough money to meet the expenses.
The brothers shined shoes, sold fruits, hawked newspapers, conducted tourists round the town, ran errands, and worked hard day and night relentlessly to earn enough money for making weekly payments to the hospital. Though, the two boys, this way earned quite a lot of money, they lived a selfless and Spartan life so as to save enough for their sister’* treatment. They did not spend anything for themselves either on their food or on clothes.
Thus, they saved a great deal, made regular payments to the hospital without complaining and helped their sister recuperate from her illness. The word ‘gentlemen’, during Shakespeare’* time, meant ‘a man of wealth and social position, especially one who does not work for a living’. But in the context of this lesson ‘gentleman’ means a man who is polite and shows consideration for the feelings of other people. It is true that “True gentlemen are made of character, not by their appearance”. It is in this sense that the author calls Nicola and Jacopo ‘gentlemen’ of Verona. Hence, we can say that the story of Nicola and Jacopo in ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, redefines the qualities of a gentleman.
