as you like it short essay

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• As You Like It

Background of the Play

According to modern critics, As You Like It is a play written for the audience of the twenty-first century. Though it is placed in Elizabethan culture and uses its aesthetic, political, social, and literary culture. It is a finger placed on the pulse of the future. It is an escape from the world of troubles, worries, and corruption to a world of enchantments and mythology.

Critics often describe it as a satire on the pastoral ideal; and a celebration of the pastoral spirit that cannot be bound. The audience loves some scenes, particularly in the forest of Arden, where love-oriented and cheerful banter dominates. In comparison to scenes at Fredrick’s court and Oliver’s home, which are dominated by gloom and battle-filled air.

Though there is no record available about the performance of this play, scholars speculate it was written probably in 1598, and first performed in 1599. It was part of First Folio, published in 1623. The time of its preparation was Shakespeare’s culmination period.

It is much different from other comedies because it mixes different cultures, traditions, and people from different classes. Christian, Pagan, and classical traditions are mixed into each other. It contains elements of a fairytale as well as rudiments of Italian romances. It contains traces of magic as well. It shows an oscillation from prose to verse.

This play gives some most profound human feelings in their most original form, which touches the hearts of the audience. This place is also important because of some references; one of foremost importance is the forest of Arden (Arden Woods). It refers to Ardennes as well forest near Shakespeare’s residence. This clarifies the historical existence of Shakespeare.

Its plot is derived from Rosalynde , which was based on a fourteenth-century poem The Tale of Gamelyn. Though Shakespeare took the plot from another work, he improved characters like Rosalind, Jacques, and Touchstone. The poem was more action-oriented, while Shakespeare made the play more reflection oriented, changing the role of philosophers. It is placed beautifully between Shakespeare’s post-tragic romances and comedies.

Pastorals were a familiar genre in that period, so it overlaps with other Pastoral works like Philip Sidney’s The Lady of May and Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender . We can conclude that it is a romantic comedy which encapsulates world affairs ranging from the grave to amorous ones.

As You Like It Summary

Act i: scene i.

In the opening scene, Orlando is shown talking to his servant Adam. He is complaining about his brother’s behavior and maltreatment. He is weary of him that how he is an obstacle in his advancement and doesn’t let him be a part of the sophisticated, cultured class. This all is heard by Oliver and gets angry with his younger brother’s complaints. He blames him that either he wants education or the property that his father has bequeathed. Oliver tries to calm Orlando while the servant is scolded. Orlando’s status is established as the play’s hero when he describes himself having the virtues his father had.

Oliver calls for Charles, the court wrestler, and he tells the news regarding duke’s court. The elder duke has been ousted by his younger brother from his court and now stays in Arden like ‘Robin Hood.’ While his daughter, Rosalind, remains at court because she is favored by the younger Duke’s daughter, Celia. Charles brings the news that Duke has announced wrestling matches, and Orlando wants to fight against him in disguise. He warns that if he did so, he would be harmed. Oliver responds by telling him to do as much harm as he can do him; this clarifies his position as the villain. He despises him because he is the most beloved and benevolent of the three brothers.

Act I: Scene II

In this scene, Rosalind and Celia make their first appearance. Rosalind mourns her father’s disappearance while Celia tries to console her. Rosalind wants to fall in love, which will occupy her mind, and this will let her get rid of distracting thoughts. Then the court fool Touchstone comes, and they greet him. He tries to cheer them up with his jokes. In a few whiles, a courtier Monsieur La Beau comes and informs them regarding the wrestling match.

A shift from prose to blank verse is noticed, and Duke Fredrick enters, gravity pervades. He asks the ladies to entreat the young man (Orlando) to quit the competition because it may have grave consequences. But he insists and wants to test him at this competition. He surprises all and defeats Charles, and asks for a second competition but is not possible because Charles is taken away. His victory pleases the ladies, and Rosalind gives him her chain. When Fredrick asks about his name, he is astonished because he is his old enemy’s son. Orlando is charmed by Rosalind’s beauty.

Act I: Scene III

Rosalind talking to Celia confesses her love for Orlando and even refers to him as her ‘child’s father.’ Fredrick, infuriated at her previous behavior, comes and tells her that she has to leave the palace within ten days. And if she didn’t leave, she will be killed for this crime to appear within the premises of the court. She pleads to revise his decision because she is not a traitor. But Duke refuses to do so. Rosalind and Celia vow never to separate from each other and decide to leave the palace together. They decide to take the court jester Touchstone along with them. They fear to leave the court in their original identity, so they decide to leave disguised. Celia disguises herself as a woman named Aliena, while Rosalind disguises herself as a man named Ganymede. They gather the jewels they will take along with them to Arden.

Act II: Scene I

In the second act, Duke is shown in the forest extolling the beauties of pastoral life. He praises the brooks, trees, stones, and all other things that are there in the forest. He tells his company to learn from the wonders which lie scattered in the forest. He expresses his regret at the harm caused to animals in the forest due to their hunt. He is informed that Jacques is sentimental because of the wounded deer and laments its injuries. He asks to be led to the place where Jacques is because it gives him pleasure to talk to Jacques. They leave to search for him.

Act II: Scene II

Duke Fredrick is informed that Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone are missing. He is told that they were praising Orlando and talked about being in love with him. They suspect that they may be with him. Oliver is summoned to court to be investigated regarding the probe.

Act II: Scene III

In this scene, Adam and Orlando meet. Adam tells him that Oliver is planning to kill him; he has plotted against him in the fight and had convinced Charles to kill him. He informs Orlando that he is still persistent and will kill him, whatever the method. He warns him to leave home as soon as possible because, at his success in the wrestling match, Oliver is jealous. At this, Orlando tells him that he will face his brother now to get his due share in the property. He will leave his home if he can help him make proper arrangements and stays by his side. Both of them agree and leave together for the forest of Arden.

Act II: Scene IV

Touchstone, Rosalind, and Celia have reached the forest of Arden. They are much tired, and Touchstone shows somewhat regret at leaving the court. Their mood is softened by woodland shepherds Corin and Silvius, who speak of love. Silvius accuses Corin that he has never been a true lover himself. He says that he admires Phebe. This reminds Rosalind of Orlando, while Touchstone recalls his love when he was a young man. Touchstone calls Corin, and Rosalind asks him about food and lodgings, which are arranged. They purchase a cottage to live while a flock of sheep to get them something to feed.

Act II: Scene V

Jacques, Amiens, and other lords are enjoying the forest. Amiens sings while the rest of the courtiers sing in chorus with him, Jacques tells them to continue it. They praise the forest because it is a serene place, and there are no enemies except ‘winter and rough weather.’ Some of the men are told to prepare the meal. Jacques says that he tries to avoid Duke senior because he thinks of him as ‘too disputable.’

Act II: Scene VI

Adam and Orlando are seen walking in the forest, stumbling. In stark contrast to the last scene where meals were arranged for both the parties, the characters in this scene are starved. Orlando and Adam are hungry but can’t find a meal. Adam stumbles while Orlando supports him, saying that he will find him food and shelter.

Act II: Scene VII

In this scene, Duke senior is seen searching for Jacques. He reaches where Jacques is sitting; the meal is prepared. He is asked by Jacques to join him in the meal. Jacques tells him that he has seen Touchstone, the jester, and wishes to wear a motley coat like him. He expresses his desire to blow air at people’s faces for their follies. Duke knows that he can’t do so because he has spent and amorous, libertine past. Suddenly Orlando arrives with a bare sword in his hand and orders them not to take a single morsel before he comes back. But when he sees Duke senior, he apologizes and is warmly greeted. He leaves to take back Adam with him. At this, Jacques gives a philosophical account of the life of man; he describes seven stages of life. He calls life a stage while men are mere actors. These life stages include the infancy, schoolboy age, lover age, soldier age justice age, absentminded-old age, and the senile age. Jacques is cynic of human beings and expresses his disgust for them. As Jacques finishes, Adam sings a song. Then enter Adam and Orlando, Duke expresses his joy at the coming of his old friend’s son and welcomes them. The duke holds Adam’s hand, and the whole company leaves happily.

Act III: Scene I

Oliver is summoned to Duke’s court, and Fredrick orders him to bring Orlando, alive or dead, to his court within twelve months. If he didn’t bring him to court within the mentioned period of time, he would lose all his property as well as the right to live in this territory. He responds by saying that he never loved his brother and will fetch him soon. The Duke scorns him for his vile nature and not loving his brother. He asks his men to take him out of court.

Act III: Scene II Summary

Orlando is wandering in the forest and is lovesick for Rosalind. He sticks love poems for her throughout the forest and carves Rosalind’s name on trees throughout. While he is doing so, Touchstone and Corin enter discussing the merits of living in the countryside in comparison to life at court. Rosalind enters disguised as Ganymede and reads a poem. Touchstone shows his disgust for the poem because it, according to him, is jagged. Then they ask the men to leave them alone. Celia tells Rosalind that she knows the man who stuck the poems to trees, and reveals that he was wearing Orlando’s chain. This agitates her mind, and when she comes to know that it was Rosalind, romantic feelings overcome her. Orlando and Jacques are seen coming towards them; they hide. Orlando tells Jacques of his love for Rosalind and is questioned by him, which he satisfactorily answers.

When Jacques goes, and Orlando is left alone, disguised Rosalind approaches him. She wants to conceal her original identity. She tells him that she can cure his illness, the condition for it would be to focus his affection towards her and to call her Rosalind. Though Orlando is skeptic of doing this, he agrees, and they leave for her cottage.

Act III: Scene III

Touchstone and Audrey, a countrywoman, are courting. The couple is incongruous because the wench is an unsophisticated, uncultured, and simpleton woman, almost opposite of Touchstone. The jester asks her to accompany him to a church vicar to get them married. According to him, this will legitimatize their love. They are watched by Jacques when they are going to the house of Sir Oliver Mar-text. Jacques thinks of them not befitting to each other. He leads them away from Sir Oliver’s and tells them to find them a better person.

Act III: Scene IV

Rosalind is seen anxiously waiting for Orlando, but he doesn’t come. She discusses him emotionally with Celia. Celia expresses her doubt about his love. Rosalind tells her that she met her father in disguise; he couldn’t recognize her. She doesn’t bother about her father’s presence; Orlando’s presence worries her. To their relief, Corin and Silvius come and change the topic.

Act III: Scene V

Silvius is seen pleading Phebe for her favor while she warns him not to come near her. Celia, Rosalind secretly watch him. At this rejection, Phebe is told that she will come to know the pain when she is in love. While Phebe responds that men aren’t emotionally hurt. At this, Rosalind comes and joins them. She rebukes Phebe for her stubbornness. She tells her to take anything that is offered and be grateful for it.

Phebe is charmed by Ganymede’s (Rosalind) appearance and praises ‘his’ (her) appearance and talk. As Rosalind leaves, she talks about her and is now happy with Silvius because he talks of love. She tells Silvius that she will love her but as a neighbor.

Act IV: Scene I

Jacques and Rosalind (still disguised) are seen bantering about melancholy. Jacques tells her that he is melancholy because he has traveled much. Rosalind replies that she prefers that talk of a jester to the silence of a sage. At Orlando’s entrance, Jacques leaves, and they are left alone. They talk about love and flirt with each other. She reprimands him for not keeping his promise and compares him to a snail. They talk about kissing; later, she adds that no man has ever died for love. When Rosalind tells her that her talk is lamenting, she gets cheerful, and they talk about marriage. They engage in a mock wedding ceremony. Then she talks about life after her marriage that if her husband isn’t caring, she will go for somebody else. Later Orlando leaves for the duke’s residence to attend the dinner he has arranged and promises to come back in two hours. Rosalind tells him that if he didn’t come back, he wouldn’t be given any favor anymore.

Act IV: Scene II

Jacques and lords are busy hunting, and a deer is caught. Last time he was grieving the wounds of the deer, but this time he is cheerful and wants to present it to the duke. They merrily sing songs. He says that he will present it to duke the way a trophy was presented to a Roman conqueror.

Act IV: Scene III

Orlando has again failed to come in time. Rosalind and Celia wonder about the reasons for his being late. Silvius comes and hands her a letter from Phebe. It has love contents, and she reads it aloud, jesting with Silvius. A few whiles later, she sends Silvius away.

Oliver arrives at their cottage in search of Rosalind. He tells her that a snake had coiled around his neck, and his brother protected him from it, but a lioness attacked him then. Orlando killed the lioness but was injured. After that, he discovered that he wrongly hated his brother. Both of them then left for Duke senior’s residence, and from there, he asked him to bring Ganymede this handkerchief. Though disguised as Ganymede, Rosalind swoons. She is sure that Oliver will tell his brother that this fainting was a pretense.

Act V: Scene I

Audrey and Touchstone converse about their marriage. Audrey tells him that Sir Mar-text was good to wed them, but he tries to postpone this issue to a later time. He tells her that there is a youth in the forest who is in love with her. While they converse, a rustic youth William comes. Touchstone asks him that if he is wise, he responds in affirmative. At this Touchstone replies: the fool doth think he is wise and embarrasses him. He warns the youth not to come near to Audrey. Corin comes and informs him that Ganymede and Aliena want him to come.

Act V: Scene II

Oliver has fallen in love with Aliena and confesses it to his brother Orlando. He says that he will leave all that his father has left, to Orlando and will lead his life like a shepherd. She has agreed to marry him, and they will get married soon. Ganymede enters and talks about Aliena and Oliver’s love at first sight. Orlando expresses his grief because Rosalind is not there. Ganymede tells him that if he comes to his (Rosalind’s, she is disguised) house, he will make him get her through magic. But before that, Oliver and Aliena need to get married.

Phebe and Silvius enter. Phebe expresses her love for Ganymede, which she denies to requite because he doesn’t love ‘any woman.’

Act V: Scene III

Touchstone is happy and tells Audrey that the next day they will get married. Duke’s two pages are with them. They sing while the couple enjoys their songs. Touchstone is cynical of the time that he has wasted before and praises the pages for their songs.

Act V: Scene IV

In the last scene, Duke senior, Rosalind, and Celia (still disguised), Jacques, Orlando, Oliver, Silvius, and Phebe are all together. Rosalind confirms that couples will get married. Rosalind and Celia leave, while Duke senior and Orlando comment that he looks like Rosalind.

Touchstone and Audrey arrive there; he is seen commending himself for marriage to Audrey, calling it a noble deed. Jacques praises his wit. He then describes seven levels of a lie.

Rosalind and Celia are led by the Greek god of marriage, Hymen. Hymen speaks in blank verse. He proceeds to marry each of the four couples, which are Audrey and Touchstone, Celia and Oliver, Silvius and Phebe, Rosalind, and Orlando. A wedlock hymn is sung. Jacques de Boys, Orlando, and Oliver’s brother arrive, bringing the news that Duke Fredrick has changed by the charm of a religious man. He has decided to return the dukedom back to his brother. All are happy at this news, while Jacques, the philosopher, announces to leave their company. The scene ends in dancing.

Rosalind speaks the epilogue. She hopes that all would have enjoyed the play who bids farewell to the audience.

As You Like It Characters Analysis

Adam is the aged servant of De Boys. He encourages Orlando, calling him the true heir of his father. He is the one who suffers with him on the journey and stays by his side all along.

Amiens is Duke senior’s courtier. He has left court with him for Arden.

Audrey is a simpleton shepherdess. She marries Touchstone. She is an ignorant person and the dullest of Shakespearean female characters. She doesn’t even understand Touchstone’s ridicule.

Celia is Rosalind’s cousin and Duke Fredrick’s daughter. She is Rosalind’s confidante and stays by her throughout the play, bearing the hardships. She is the reason behind Rosalind’s falling in love. Because she had told her to go and congratulate Orlando. She is later disguised as Aliena and marries Oliver. Celia is a stronger woman than her cousin. Because when Rosalind assumes male disguise, she shows contempt for women while she reproves her for that.

Charles is a court wrestler. He is used by Oliver to kill Orlando but gets defeated.

Corin is a shepherd and defends pastoral life. He befriends Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone. Though Touchstone abuses him for being simpleton, he defends himself successfully.

J acques de Boys

Jacques de Boys is Orlando and Oliver’s brother. He brings the news of Fredrick’s conversion into a good man. He can be called a mediator between good and evil forces.

Duke Fredrick

Fredrick has usurped the throne from his elder brother. He is Celia’s father. He is a one-dimensional villain and can be called a type. His character is almost irrelevant and doesn’t make an appearance after a religious conversion.

Duke Senior

He is the exiled duke from whom his younger brother has taken all his property. He lives in the forest of Arden. He is a benevolent patriarchal figure in the forest and rules his loyal subjects there. His dialogue closes the play, and he is the one who opens the scene in the forest. He is in love with natural life and praises the beauties of pastoral life, comparing it to the perilous air of court.

Hymen is the Greek god of marriage. He appears in the last scene and leads the wedding ceremony of the couples. His presence confirms that this forest is something away from the worries of the world.

Jacques is a philosopher and a lord in attendance to Duke senior. He is a melancholy person. He is considered as Touchstone’s foil because both are witty, who reflect on the misery, beauty, and irony of the world. He looks a misanthrope and is a different character in the forest. He considers all human beings as usurpers laying into ruins the beauty of the world. He can be seen as the earliest environmentalist in literature.

Le Beau is Fredrick’s courtier. He brings the news of duke’s displeasure at the ladies’ bold step to approach Orlando.

Sir Oliver Mar-text

He is a vicar and is about to officiate the marriage ceremony of Touchstone and Audrey but is interrupted by Jacques.

Oliver is Orlando’s elder brother and has usurped Orlando’s properties. Initially, he plays the role of a villain. He evolves later, changes into a good man, and vows to lead a life like a shepherd. He is jealous of his brother, who is well-loved by people, and he is paid no proper attention. He hates Orlando and plans to kill him. He falls in love with Celia and gets married to her in the end.

Orlando is the principal male protagonist of this play and son of Sir Roland de Boys. He is not given proper value at his home, and by showing discontent leads to his miseries. His brother hates him, and he plans to kill him. He leaves his home for the forest. He falls in love with Rosalind and she with him. He is a modest person and without boasting defeats Charles and looks shy when Rosalind and Celia approach him. His name is an anagram of his father’s name, and his servant calls him the true image of his father. This shows his abilities and competence. In the forest, it is noticed that he doesn’t assert himself much, and this shows his abilities to reconcile to the feminine gender. He is a gentle person and shows his gentle upbringing in the initial scenes in the forest. He combines passion and aggression in himself. He shows himself the most competent character in the play. He marries Rosalind in the end.

Phebe is a shepherdess who is loved by Silvius. She is indifferent towards him and falls in love with Ganymede. But in the end, he agrees to meet Silvius. She is the most ignorant of Shakespearean female characters.

Rosalind is Duke Senior’s daughter and resides with her uncle Fredrick at his palace. She is exiled because she has approached Orlando, son of duke’s old enemy. She falls in love with Orlando and leaves the palace with her cousin Celia.

She later disguises as Ganymede and, in the end, marries Orlando. She is the play’s central character. She speaks most of the dialogues and brings the play to an end. She has become melancholy because her father has been ousted from the court, and along with that, Orlando is away from her. She can’t stand this men’s apparel (disguise) but successfully maintains it until the time comes to throw it away.

She is deeply in love with Orlando and is in need of a man figure in her life, which she gets in the form of Orlando. Though she shows her sovereignty when disguised as a man but becomes subservient when it comes to her original and marries Orlando.

He is a shepherd and deeply in love with Phebe. She scorns him but eventually is able to marry her.

Touchstone is a court jester at Fredrick’s court. He leaves court with Celia and Rosalind for the forest. He is a witty person, and his name fits him well. He discloses the realities of other characters when they talk to him. He is a foil for Jacques and is a philosopher as well a worldly man. He is out of place in the forest and constantly makes the audience feel that he is not happy there.

He falls in love with Audrey and, in the end, marries her. He looks at things from a different angle. He criticizes Orlando’s poetry and calls it pedantic. He criticizes Corin for not having learned court manners. He considers himself something between a fool and a wise man. His role in this play is there as relief from comic realism. His dialogues preempt laughter as well as thoughts in the audience.

William is a person from the countryside and is in love with Audrey. Touchstone threatens him, never to be seen near her.

Themes in As You Like It

Pastoral life.

As You Like It shows Shakespeare’s partiality towards rural life. He shows his contempt for court life in this play through the mouth of different characters. He, through the court’s disorder and deterioration, shows the political decline. He depicts the movement towards the gradual meanness of human beings in court life. He has shown how materialistic competition leads to conflict between brothers. Duke senior introduces this life by saying that in this life, there is no danger except winter. In pastoral life, there is no property and social position, which is the secret of the serenity of this life.

Though the journey to the forest is difficult, it is a blessing for those who successfully reach there. This life is a liberation from oppression and strips human beings from the evils they have acquired in court life. It is a morally pure realm and has transforming capabilities.

Fortune versus Nature

In this play, there is a conflict between fortune and nature. Fortune represents the materialistic forces, while nature represents the purifying forces. Here this competition is shown when the audience comes to know that Fredrick was benefited over duke senior by fortune and led to the usurpation of power.

Celia, in a dialogue, says that the fortune she has will be equally divided between her and Rosalind. Thus ending the injustice, thus challenging the goddess of fortune. Goddess nature was considered as blind, while nature was considered to be controlling people’s innately good values and promotes virtues. In Duke senior, we can see that he has given up the fortune and is now living a virtuous life. We can conclude that the plays come to enjoy the virtues of nature when they give up their fortune.

If we compare time in court contrasted with time in the forest, we can see that in the former, it’s a threat while in the latter, it’s a blessing. In court, whenever the time is mentioned, we can see that there are deadlines and characters are threatened.

There are threats of executions, exile, and arrest. In the forest, there are no such events, and time is shown without intervals. It is shown in a dialogue between Touchstone and Jacques as a vast eternity in which the characters gradually diminish. Jacques further elucidates it as the seven ages of men, excluding violence from it.

As stated earlier that there are no artificialities in the forest, time is not measured by clocks rather by the passing of the day. In short, time in the forest is subjective, not objective; each character sees it from his own novel perspective. Thus it is not a misery rather a benefaction.

Sexual Identity

In As You Like It , sexual identity is thoroughly examined. This is done through the character of Rosalind. She is disguised as Ganymede and remains so throughout. She can throw away the disguise when she enters the forest, but she doesn’t do so. Critics agree that she does so to get rid of the submissive role she has to play due to being female. She reverts the roles when courting Orlando and is in control of the further movement. In those days, female roles were played by young male actors, so it adds to the beauty of the play to transform a single male actor to perform different roles dexterously.

Acting and the Stage

In this play, we can see there are numerous references made to stage, acting, play, and characters. Firstly, it is evident in the case of Rosalind, who is disguised as Ganymede and asks him to ‘play the knave with him.’ She can say much about the role of the lover as well the role of man, and she successfully plays the role of a man. She points out that he doesn’t play a proper lover because he is tidy and not disheveled.

Jacques draws an analogy between seven ages of man and between acts of a play. Duke senior refers to the world as a stage at the arrival of Orlando. He calls this life both a tragedy and a comedy. ‘All the world is a stage’ is the most evidence of this fact. It strengthens this Shakespearean belief of the world as a stage. He believes in the inability of actors to bring any change to the script or their roles and uses befitting metaphors for this purpose.

Familial Relationships

Like some other Shakespearean plays, familial relationships are also the focus in this play. Conflicts are going on between brothers for property, money, or leading role. This is shown in the case of Orlando and Oliver as well in the case of Duke senior and Fredrick. It is excellently portrayed how fortune ruins relationships, and nature mends them.

As You Like It Literary Analysis

In Shakespearean plays, we see elements in binaries, and these binaries are shown in contrast. We can see that there is a tension between natural and artificial, love and hatred, rustic and court life, serenity and conflict, gentle and pastoral characters. This is shown very well using the forest, court, imagery, and the witty dialogues of the sage characters. Virtue and evil are shown using the conflict going on in court life. Language and style are usefully employed by the playwright to add a realistic touch to the pastoral idealism. It is an idyllic utopia woven using the philosophical dialogues and some dystopian scenes.

Historical Context

Like other comedies, the historical context is mixed to alienate the audience. Shakespeare has used the forest of Arden as the setting while the court’s location is not mentioned. This way, the playwright has put forth the evils prevalent in court and those usually seen in the city life. Thus the audience doesn’t take it as an offense and realize the importance of rural life. This historical context also helps challenge gender roles.

Lyrical Interludes

Using songs and poems, Shakespeare has emphasized the romantic and pastoral aspects of this play. Five songs are performed, more than any other play. Different forms of verse are used in this play, which adds to its pastoral beauty. Half of the play is written in prose, while the sudden interludes signify the romantic outbursts in rustic life. Using a lyrical interlude, the chorus affirms that nature is the safest place for human beings. To shortly state, these lyrical interludes present nature’s rhythm.

The Pastoral

Pastoral is a poem describing shepherds and describing their rustic life. This may include some artificial elements like eloquence. Pastoralism impacted English life from 1550 to 1750. Shakespeare treated the pastoral somewhat ambiguously and has used it to create comedy. On one side, Orlando is shown leaving everything back in the palace and sticking poems to trees while Jacques is a philosopher shown in the forest. In the end, when everything is fine, all except Jacques leave for court, this shows it may be an endorsement or satire on the pastorals, the choice is readers’! As You Like It !

Similes are also prevalent, like other figurative uses of language like imagery, setting, wordplay, etc. Certain similes were familiar for the London audience then, like the analogy of weeping to the fountain of Diana. This is a reference to the statue of the aforementioned goddess in Cheapside London. Some similes mentioning animals can also be seen in this play.

Orlando refers to himself like a doe in search of her fawn; Jacques likens himself to weasel and rooster. Like these other objects are also used to describe the features relevant to them. Thus the befitting use of similes adds to the meaning of dialogues. The use of all these, along with the romances excellently employed, make it a successful romantic comedy.

Marginalization of Plot

In contrast to other Shakespearean plays, in this play, there can be a clear marginalization of plot noticed. Some scholars even blame him for neglect. As we can see that there is a sudden conversion of villains from evil to good for which he is usually criticized. Shakespeare has dealt with the plot summarily, and that reflects his intention not to make it the essence of the play. Thus limiting the plot has led to the strengthening of characters.

Gender Roles

Gender roles are not only important in the play’s technical context rather in historical context as well. These depict the widespread sexism in the Elizabethan era as well as the subordinate role in that hierarchical society. This was the undisputed division of society that women didn’t question, but Shakespeare, through the character of Rosalind, has questioned. Roles were fixed, and nobody could rebel against them. This has bound not only women but men as well. An instance of it is Rosalind disguised as Ganymede when she swoons at the news of Orlando’s injury. Oliver says, ‘You a man! You lack a man’s heart.’

Celia and Rosalind, in a conversation, say that women are marketable and have a quantifiable value. Thus the forest of Arden is free from the curse of dowry like other curses. Shakespeare softens the perception of masculine than hardening that of the feminine.

London, at that time, had a population of about two lacs and was different from country life in many respects. Thus the people coming from these two backgrounds were foreigners to each other. Shakespeare brings them together, and with the use of rural characters like Audrey and William, produce a comic effect. Though the playwright focuses primarily on the love stories still there is depiction of rural life and its values.

There are many allusions in this play. Some of them are Hymen, the Greek goddess of marriage, Arden, which refers to the Arden woods as well as Ardennes in France. In a dialogue, Celia, referring to fools, suggests the banishment of satire through a royal order.

More From William Shakespeare

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Merchant of Venice
• Twelfth Night
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Comedy of Errors

As You Like It

William shakespeare, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

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As You Like It: Introduction

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Historical Context of As You Like It

Other books related to as you like it.

• Full Title: As You Like It
• When Written: 1598-1600
• Where Written: Stratford, England
• When Published: 1623, First Folio
• Literary Period: The Renaissance (1500-1600)
• Genre: Comedy
• Setting: French Court and the Forest of Arden
• Climax: Rosalind, dressed as Ganymede, sets the terms for the marriages of all the characters that surround her, assuring Orlando that she will use her magic to bring Rosalind to him, promising Phebe that “he” will marry her if “he” ever marries a woman, and making Phebe promise that she will otherwise marry Silvius

Extra Credit for As You Like It

Shakespeare or Not? There are some who believe Shakespeare wasn't educated enough to write the plays attributed to him. The most common anti-Shakespeare theory is that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and used Shakespeare as a front man because aristocrats were not supposed to write plays. Yet the evidence supporting Shakespeare's authorship far outweighs any evidence against. So until further notice, Shakespeare is still the most influential writer in the English language.

As You Like It

By william shakespeare, as you like it essay questions.

What is the play's outlook on love?

As You Like It, like many of Shakespeare's comedies, features love, desire, and romantic pursuit as one of its central themes. In many ways, the concept of love is presented ironically in the play, especially through the character of Orlando: his hyperbolic declarations of love for Rosalind satirize the Petrarchan tradition that preceded Shakespeare's work (and Shakespeare himself satirizes this tradition in his Sonnets). However, despite the playful mocking of Orlando, the play ultimately suggests that love is powerful enough to inspire the foolishness and ridiculous he seems to display. Thus, it is not altogether critical of the concept of love; instead, it delights in the entertainment value that love can produce.

Whom or what does Shakespeare satirize through Orlando's character?

Throughout the play, Orlando uses hyperbolic expressions of love to convey his feelings for Rosalind. At one point, he asserts that seeing her frown would be enough to kill him. These over-the-top declarations are part of Shakespeare's satirization of the Petrarchan literary tradition – that is, the poetic style pioneered by Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, in which the speaker often laments that unrequited love causes him physical distress. This tradition mostly preceded Shakespeare, but overlapped with his early literary career. Through Orlando, the play playfully mocks these conventions but, at the same time, establishes the extent to which Shakespeare and his contemporaries were indebted to the sixteenth-century Petrarchan poets.

What does Rosalind's disguise suggest about gender norms?

At the beginning of the play, Rosalind and Orlando both retreat into the Forest of Arden for their own reasons. There, Rosalind disguises herself as a boy named Ganymede. Later, when she runs into Orlando in the forest, she offers to help him practice his wooing for Rosalind, ultimately allowing her to get closer to him. Rosalind's disguise is portrayed as a type of freedom – ironically, it is only as a man that she can fully indulge in her feelings for Orlando and vice versa. Her disguise suggests a more fluid understanding of gender and sexuality, while also providing meta-theatrical commentary on the performance itself (as the part of Rosalind would have been played by a boy or young man).

How is the Forest of Arden portrayed compared to the French court?

Generally speaking, when characters in a comedy desert the city for the countryside or the woods, the performance sees a radical shift in tone. In A Midsummer Night's Dream , for example, the woods in which the characters find themselves are portrayed as enchanted and magical, complete with fairies and other mystical energy. In As You Like It , there is no supernatural phenomena at work. However, the Forest of Arden appears in stark contrast to the French court from which the characters originated: the forest is freeing, allowing characters to take on new identities (see: Rosalind), while the court is full of anxiety, social pressure, and feuds over power and inheritance. Thus, the play presents its primary setting (the forest) as an escape or refuge from the constraints of urban or courtly life.

What elements of As You Like It make it a comedy?

As You Like It falls into the genre of comedy for a number of reasons. First, the play features a retreat from the court to a more natural setting – something that rarely happens in early modern tragedies, which tend to focus on drama within the court or noble families. Second, the play relies on dramatic irony for a large portion of its plot, in that Orlando has no idea that the woman he loves is dressed up as his newfound companion, Ganymede. Finally, comedies generally conclude with at least one marriage, and this play ends with four of them: the conflicts that dominated the majority of the play are resolved, evil-doers are transformed, and lovers are united as their true selves.

As You Like It Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for As You Like It is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What elements of drama were used?

As You Like It by William Shakespeare, like many of his plays, incorporates various elements of drama. Here are unique examples of how certain factors are used inside the play to set the scene, in addition to the story, define characters, and...

Describe the life of the old Duke in the Forest of Arden.

Duke Senior inhabits a cave in the forest of Ardenne where he spends time with other noblemen who have joined him. He is described as living like Robin Hood with his band of men.

Explain how Duke Ferderick had come to this position?

Duke Frederick is the younger brother of Duke Senior, he usurped (stole) his position and banished his brother.

Study Guide for As You Like It

As You Like It study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About As You Like It
• As You Like It Summary
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Essays for As You Like It

As You Like It literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of As You Like It.

• Relations On the Stage Between Older and Younger Men in 1 Henry IV and As You Like It
• Which Side of the Fence? Questioning Sexuality in As You Like It
• As Rosalind Likes It
• Call Me Rosalind: Gender and Gender Stereotyping in As You Like It
• Colliding Worlds: Green World Theory vs. Marxist Theory

Lesson Plan for As You Like It

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
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• Introduction to As You Like It
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
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E-Text of As You Like It

As You Like It E-Text contains the full text of As You Like It

• List of Characters
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• Introduction
• Date and text

• As You Like It

William Shakespeare

• Literature Notes
• Play Summary
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Act I: Scene 1
• Act I: Scene 2
• Act I: Scene 3
• Act II: Scene 1
• Act II: Scene 2
• Act II: Scene 3
• Act II: Scene 4
• Act II: Scene 5
• Act II: Scene 6
• Act II: Scene 7
• Act III: Scene 1
• Act III: Scene 2
• Act III: Scene 3
• Act III: Scene 4
• Act III: Scene 5
• Act IV: Scene 1
• Act IV: Scene 2
• Act IV: Scene 3
• Act V: Scene 1
• Act V: Scene 2
• Act V: Scene 3
• Act V: Scene 4
• Act V: Epilogue
• Character Analysis
• William Shakespeare Biography
• Critical Essay
• The Natural and the Artificial in As You Like It
• Essay Questions
• Cite this Literature Note

Orlando, the youngest son of the now deceased Sir Roland de Boys, complains to Adam, the old family retainer, that his eldest brother, Oliver, has kept his Inheritance from him — that is, Oliver has neglected training Orlando to be a proper gentleman. Oliver arrives on the scene, and a bitter quarrel takes place. Adam parts the fighting brothers, and Oliver coldly promises to give Orlando his due. Learning that Orlando intends to challenge Duke Frederick's champion wrestler, a brute of a man called Charles, Oliver makes plans to have his brother killed in the ring. He convinces the slow-witted Charles that Orlando is plotting against him and that Orlando should be killed.

At the match the next day, Duke Frederick, his daughter Celia, and his niece, Rosalind, watch Charles and Orlando wrestle. Charles has seriously injured his first three opponents, but in the match with Orlando, the young man's great speed and agility defeat the duke's champion. At first, Frederick is very cordial to Orlando, but when he learns the youth's identity, he becomes furious and leaves. The reason for the duke’s leaving is that Orlando's dead father, Sir Roland de Boys, had at one time been Frederick's bitter enemy.

After Frederick stalks out, Celia and Rosalind congratulate Orlando, and Rosalind makes it clear that she finds him most attractive. Orlando returns her feelings, but he is so tongue-tied with embarrassment that he can say nothing.

At the ducal palace, we discover that Celia and her cousin Rosalind are as close as sisters; Rosalind is the daughter of the rightful duke, Duke Senior, whose throne has been usurped by his brother, Frederick. Frederick has banished Duke Senior, along with a band of his faithful followers, to the Forest of Arden to live the life of simple foresters. Until now, it is only the strong bond between Rosalind and Celia that prevents Duke Frederick from sending Rosalind away to share her father's exile. But suddenly, Frederick storms into the palace, accuses Rosalind of plotting against him, and, despite Celia's pleas for her cousin, banishes Rosalind. After her father leaves, Celia decides to go into exile with her cousin, and the girls set out for the Forest of Arden — Rosalind disguised as a young man, "Ganymede," and Celia disguised as a young country lass, "Aliena." Touchstone, Frederick's jester, accompanies them.

Meanwhile, Orlando returns home and is warned by the faithful Adam that Oliver is plotting to kill him. Together, they too decide to set out for the Forest of Arden, hoping that they will find safety there.

When his daughter Celia is missed, Frederick sends his men out to find Orlando. When he is informed of Orlando's flight to the Forest of Arden, Frederick assumes that Orlando is responsible for Celia's disappearance, and in a rage he sends for Oliver and commands him to find Orlando or else forfeit his entire estate to Frederick.

In the forest, Orlando and Adam join Rosalind's exiled father and his men, while Rosalind and Celia, still in disguise, purchase a little cottage and a small herd of sheep and settle down to a peaceful, pastoral existence. One day, however, Rosalind finds that the trees in the forest are all covered with sheets of poetry, dedicated to her. The author of these poems, of course, is Orlando. So, still pretending to be the young man Ganymede, Rosalind meets Orlando, who is in the throes of love-sickness for having apparently lost Rosalind. Ganymede offers to cure Orlando of his love-sickness by pretending to be his lady-love, Rosalind. Orlando, she says, should woo Ganymede as though "he" were Rosalind. In turn, Ganymede will do "his best" to act as moody and capricious as a girl might just do and, eventually, Orlando will weary of all the coy teasing and forget all about love — and Rosalind. Orlando agrees to try the plan.

Rosalind, meanwhile, continues to assume the guise of Ganymede and becomes accidentally involved in yet another complication: Silvius, a young shepherd, falls in love with Phebe, a hard-hearted shepherdess, but Phebe rejects Silvius' attentions and falls in love with the young, good-looking Ganymede.

In the midst of all this confusion, Oliver arrives in the Forest of Arden. He tells Ganymede of a near escape he has just had with death. His brother, Orlando, he says, saved him from being poisoned by a deadly snake as he slept, and later, Orlando killed a lioness that was ready to pounce on Oliver. Oliver then tells Ganymede that he has been sent to this part of the forest to seek out a young man known as Ganymede and tell him that Orlando cannot keep his appointment with him. And there is more news: while saving Oliver's life, Orlando was wounded. Hearing this, Ganymede swoons.

Later, in another part of the forest, Oliver and Celia meet and fall in love at first sight, and the jester, Touchstone, falls in love with a homely, simple-minded young woman named Audrey, who tends a herd of goats. Touchstone chases off Audrey's suitor, a lout named William, and although he realizes that he will never instill in Audrey any understanding of, or love for, such things as poetry, he still feels that he must have her.

Duke Frederick, meanwhile, is alarmed by the daily exodus of so many of the best men of his court to the alliance that is growing in the Forest of Arden; he therefore decides to journey to the forest himself and put a stop to all this business. At the forest's edge, however, he meets an old religious hermit and is miraculously converted.

At this point, Rosalind, still disguised as Ganymede, promises to solve the problems of everyone by magic. Shedding her male attire in private, she suddenly appears as herself, and the play comes to a swift close as she and Orlando, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audrey are married. Rosalind's father, the rightful duke, is joyous at finding his daughter again and is returned to his ducal status. Frederick's conversion is so complete that he renounces the world. At the end of the play, Rosalind comes forward and addresses the audience in a short but charming epilogue. In particular, she talks to all the lovers in the audience and wishes them well.

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Page contents, critical approaches to as you like it, eighteenth-century and romantic critics, victorian criticism, the twentieth century, about this text.

• Title : As You Like It: Critical Reception
• Author : David Bevington
• Edition: As You Like It
• Critical Reception
• Introduction
• Performance History
• Textual Introduction
• Bibliography
• As You Like It, Modern
• As You Like It, Folio 1, 1623 (Old-spelling transcription)
• Everyman In His Humor
• The Tale of Gamelyn
• The Marriage Service
• Myths in Shakespeare
• Robin Hood and the Beggar
• Rosalind: Euphues' Golden Legacy
• Brandeis University
• New South Wales
• Second Folio
• Third Folio
• Fourth Folio
• Works Rowe, Vol.2
• Works Theobald, Vol.2

1 As You Like It must have been successful in its day, but it did not attract much critical attention. It was not published until the 1623 folio edition of the collected works, and seems not to have been revived on stage until 1723 and even then in markedly adapted form as Love in a Forest ; not until 1740 was something like the original play seen on the London stage. See Stage History. Critical attention too had to wait until the eighteenth century, and even then is sparse. Dr Johnson, writing in 1765, finds the fable "wild and pleasing," the character of Jaques "natural and well-preserved," the comic dialogue "very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays," and "the graver part" "elegant and harmonious." Johnson complains only that the hurried-up ending might have profited from some dialogue between the usurping Duke Frederick and the hermit with whom he is reported to have sought out for religious instruction, which might have provided "an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson" worthy of Shakespeare's "highest powers." Perhaps too Rosalind and Celia are a bit too quick to "give away their hearts" (2.108). These observations, brief though they be, are characteristic of much eighteenth-century criticism: they offer appreciative judgments of the characters in terms of what is "natural" and in terms of what is morally edifying. Johnson's general observation on literature is that "nothing pleases, and pleases long, but a just representation of general nature." This is precisely what Shakespeare does so well, in Johnson's view. Shakespeare's genius is to depict what is universally true and universally inspiring as a model for human conduct. Dramatic language should be decorous, appropriate, restrained, and not given to unseemly word play.

2 Francis Gentleman, writing in 1770, basically concurs: he knows "of no more agreeable piece on the stage" than AYL , since the play's characters are "various," its incidents certainly pleasing even if not striking, its sentiments generally "pregnant with useful meaning," and its language, "though quaint in some places," showing a "general strength and spirit worthy of Shakespeare's pen." Yet the play suffers from a "severe invasion" of the unities, and a plot "hurried on to an imperfect catastrophe" in which the unnatural and abominable brother Oliver is undeservedly rewarded with fortune and love (1.474ff.). Again, a play should be morally edifying and true to the dictates of poetic justice. Among the play's major characters, Jaques scores an early triumph. George Steevens, in 1773, is especially appreciative of Jaques's "gloomy sensibility" and consistency of character that makes him an "amiable though solitary moralist" (3.339).

3 Character criticism emphasizing what is idiosyncratic and heartwarming in human behavior comes increasingly into vogue in the Romantic period of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Enthusiasm predominates; Romantic critics tend favor that which is spontaneous. Jaques continues to be a favorite. William Hazlitt is typical in praising Jaques as "the only purely contemplative character in Shakespeare." "His only passion is thought; he sets no value upon anything but as it serves as food for reflection" (1817. 306). Hermann Ulrici is similarly delighted by Jaques's "meditative superficiality, his witty sentimentality, his merry sadness," and above all his melancholy "contempt of life and men" (1839, 1876, 2.18). Rosalind quickly emerges as another favorite. In Anna Jameson's words, she displays an exquisitely blended and volatile "compound of esssences." She is sprightly, imaginative, vivacious, and able to don masculine attire "without the slightest impugnment of her delicacy" (1833, 1.144ff.) Indeed, Rosalind quickly rises to become, for the nineteenth century as a whole, a shining example of the Shakespearean romantic heroine. Touchstone comes to be appreciated as a "personification of caprice and ridicule" who shares Jaques's perception of human failings but with a fool's "capricious folly and foolish capriciousness" (Ulrici, 1839. 1876. 2.19).

4 More generally, AYL is greeted by Romantic critics as the very embodiment of the Romantic spirit. For Nathan Drake, "There is something inexpressibly wild and interesting both in the characters and in the scenery" (1817, 2.431ff.). In Hazitt's view, "The very air of the place seems to breathe a spirit of philosophical poetry; to stir the thoughts, to touch the heart with pity, as the drowsy forest rustles to the sighing gale" (1817, 306). AYL is, to Hazlitt, "the most ideal of any of this author's plays" (305). August W. von Schlegel rejoices to see how the "unlimited freedom" of the wilderness compensates Duke Senior and his followers for the lost conveniences of life, thus demonstrating that "nothing is wanted to call forth the poetry which has its dwelling in nature and the human mind but to throw off all artificial constraint and restore both to their native liberty" (1809-11, 1815, 2.172ff.). Here indeed is a call to Romantic idealism about liberty and freedom of the human spirit. If Shakespeare is, for Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others, a "wild, irregular genius," then no comedy could hope to surpass AYL. Shakespeare's disregard for the classical "laws" of dramatic composition, for which he was faulted by Francis Gentleman, above, now becomes a positive feature of his writing. William Maginn, writing in 1837, answers those who object to a tropical lion and snake in Arden as violating concepts of decorum and plausibility by celebrating AYL 's imaginative genius. "All the prodigies spawned by Africa . . . might well have teemed in a forest, wherever situate, that was inhabited by such creatures as Rosalind, Touchstone, and Jaques" (p. 65). Charles Knight concurs: "We most heartily wish that the critics would allow poetry to have its own geography" (1849, 301).

5 Victorian criticism of AYL , as of Shakespeare generally, tends to exalt Shakespeare as a poet and philosopher rather than as a playwright, and as a creator of immortal characters whose "lives" might be appreciated as though those characters enjoyed an existence quite apart from their fictional existence. Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, in their edition of 1864, stress the literary and generic features of the Forest of Arden: it "represents a poetical forest generally, where lovers, dukes, lords, shepherds, jesters, natural philosophers and artificial philosophers, lions and lambs, serpents and goats, oaks and olives, palm-trees and osiers, may all flourish contentedly and plausibly, without disturbing the peace of those whose imaginations accept the truths of poetry as universal truth, not mere geographical, animal, or botanical literalities." Arden is "the archetype of poetic and romantic forests." Critics such as these see Arden as a wholesome and restorative place, inhabited for the most part by charitable and loving folks. The moral contrast of country and court is edifyingly plain. Values of generosity, forbearance, good nature, honesty, and chaste if romantic affection help define Shakespeare as an unholder of decency and idealism. Despite a few sly sexual double entendres, offered espcially by Touchstone, AYL is seen as good innocent entertainment well suited to Dr. Thomas Bowdler's Family Shakespeare . "Perhaps there is no play more full of real moral lessons than As You Like It ," declares Charles Knight in his 1841 edition. Shakespeare's "moral lesson" is to be collected not out of sermonizing but "out of his incidents and characters." Edward Dowden is sure that the marked preference for Arden over "the envious court" is autobiographical: "Shakspere turned with a sense of relief, and a long easeful sigh, from the oppressive subjects of history, so grave, so real, so massive, and found rest and freedom and pleasure in escape from courts and camps to the Forest of Arden" (1875, 75ff.). After all, Shakespeare grew up in bucolic Stratford-upon-Avon, and his mother's family name was Arden. To Grace Latham (1982299), "The underlying thought in the play is this struggle between good and evil." C. A. Wurtzburg insists that "The deep truths that may be gathered from this play of As You Like It are the innate dignity of the human soul, . . . the development of self. . . . [and] the aim of true self-fulfillment in the good, not of each individual, but of society" (1892,1863 498).

6 For Victorian critics, as for the Romantics, character criticism tends to be moral and appreciative, applauding virtuous conduct and deploring its opposite as positive and negative models for human behavior. Rosalind ceaselessly delights readers with her complementary qualities of adventurousness and sagacity, mischivousness and tenderness, sense of humor and romantic passion, courage and weakness. She is at once "a Grace, a Muse, an angel, an imp," says Daniel O'Sullivan (1838, p. 81). "Such is the woman that God has made." Georg Gervinus finds her loyal in her friendships, innately good-humored, enterprising, plucky, and delightfully iconoclastic (1849-50, trans. 1875, 1.554ff.). We bask in her wit, say the Clarkes in 1863. Rosalind manages somehow to be feminine and modest even in her man's attire. She is especially winsome in her manner of deflating the coquettishness that is so often attributed to her sex (Helena Faucit Martin, 1884, 405). Male critics tend to appreciate Rosalind's robust beauty and charm together with the absence of Beatrice's sharp edge. Rosalind is, for Richard G. White, "the most charming, the most captivating, of all Shakespeare's women" (1885, 247). Women like Helena Martin are drawn to Rosalind because she is so unhampered by claptrap romantic illusions about falling in love. Rosalind has good reason to hope, then, as she says in her epilogue, "that betweeen you [the men] and the women the play may please." Victorian critical opinion avidly endorse her view that both the men and the women of the period find Rosalind irresistible.

7 Jaques suffers the one real danger posed by the Forest of Arden, which is ennui leading to melancholy. Such, in Georg Gervinus's view, is the reason for Jaques's ill humor, making this "witty and sententious worldling far more of a rude fault-finder than a contented sufferer like the rest." In his "hypchondrial mood" and "spirit of contradictio,", Jaques "finds this forest-life just as foolish as that of the court which they have quitted." He is thus a creature of gloomy excess, admirable only as a foil for the better-tempered men with whom he shares the forest existence. Hyppolite-Adolphe Taine (1863-4, trans. 1871, 1.346) is more sympathetic to "one of Shakespeare's best-loved characters"; Taine fancies that behind the mask of brooding "we perceive the face of the poet. He is sad because he is tender; he feels the contact of things too keenly, and what leaves the rest indifferent, makes him weep." Abner Kellogg (1866, 92ff.) agrees: Jaques is not typical of morose men in that he never pleads for sympathy for himself. He is fully as interested in the clownish courtship of Touchstone and Audrey as he is interested in that of Orlando and Rosalind. Though these critics disagree as to whether Shakespeare meant Jaques to be sympathetic, their critical approaches are similarly that of the nineteenth century in their devotion to the art of character study aimed at calibrating the moral and ethical purpose of the character sketch.

8 Fans of Touchstone are apt to be enamored of his debate with Corin on the city vs. the country (3.2) as a demonstration of both his wit and his wholesomeness. To Charles Clarke (1863, 54ff.) Touchstone is the sort of sweet-natured person who is "able to make himself happy and contented wherever fortune chances to cast him. He is gay and easy at court; -- he is good tempered and at ease in the forest." Touchstone "carries his own sunshine about with him." Henry T. Hall (1871, 130ff.) is inclined to see Touchstone as more at ease in the court, but so agreeable in his nature that he cheerfully obeys the behest of Celia to follow her into the forest. J. C. Smith (ed. 1894, 27ff.) is delighted with Touchstone's "oft-quoted antithesis between the country and the court," which he sums up "with a nicety that leaves not a straw to choose betwen them." Henry Ruggles (1895, 430ff.) agrees with Hall that Touchstone's "bit of self-sacrifice" in giving up the creature comforts of the court "puts him in accord with that kindnesss and friendship which are made the chief motives of the piece." Thus for Victorian critics generally, AYI is a profoundly benign play, one inhabited by persons whom would dearly like to know better. Even its villains are not incorrigible.

9 This buoyantly optimistic view of AYL continues on into some twentieth-century criticism, not surprisingly; the play is, after all, a romantic comedy ending in a regular feast of marriages. One particularly insightful book in this vein is Robert G. Hunter's Shakespeare and the Comedy of Forgiveness (1965). Hunter defines the "comedy of forgiveness" as a sub-genre of romantic comedy, one in which forgiveness is at the heart of the plot and the theatrical experience of the play. AYL amply fits the definition; forgiveness is the key to the play's resolution. This idea gives us insight into the characters of the villains, Oliver and Duke Frederick: both are envious of their more virtuous brothers at the start of the play, and both would be more like those brothers if they knew how. The forest improbably, almost magically, shows them the way. Their embracing of the very qualities they have stood out against is sudden because the experience of conversion is appropriately sudden: they see the light, won to virtue by the charitable ways of forest life that the play has invited us to admire. Arthur Quiller-Couch (ed. 1926, x ff.), for one, agrees: AYL reveals Shakespeare at his happiest, showing us men and women who "are lost to the world for a time, to indulge their own happy proclivities and go back somehow regenerated."

10 Just as a twentieth-century revolt against such genial verities inevitably found its way into British and American theatre, however, it was sure to do so in critical analyses of AYL . One line of revisionist investigation has been to look closely at what is far from idyllic in Arden. H. B. Charlton (1938, 278ff.) reminds us that "Arden is no conventional Arcadia. Winter, rough weather, the season's differences,s the icy fang and churlish chiding of the winter's wind invade Arden as often as they invade this hemisphere of ours." Nature survives by killing its own creatures in a competition for survival, as evidenced in the saga of the weeping deer (2.1). Humans too suffer under harsh social inequalities, as we see in the plight of Corin, bound in servitude to a master who, in his "churlish disposition," "little recks to find the way to heaven / By doing deeds of hospitality" (2.4.76-8). J. Dover Wilson (1927) warns us not to miss "the vein of mockery that runs throughout," manifesting itself in the portrait of an aged servant (Adam) about to perish from hunger, or of Oliver, arriving in the forest 'footsore, in rags, and so dog-tired that when he falls asleep even a snake coiling about his throat is not able to wake him." Our first glimpse of Arden "is in winter-time." Caroline Spurgeon (1935, 276ff.) observes of the play's persistent nature imagery that it includes talk of thorny woods, briers, burs, and broken ears in the harvest field. Edward A. Armstrong (1946, 1963, 12ff.) points out how important are the doctrine of the Fall of Man and the story of the Prodigal Son as archetypes and background for the play.

11 George Bernard Shaw, though reluctantly won over by some of Rosalind's witty iconoclasms which are perhaps not unlike Shaw's own, is merciless in his distaste for what is for him the play's saccharine empty-headed optimism. "Shakespear found that the only thing that paid in the theatre was romantic nonsense," writes Shaw. "When he was forced by this to produce one of the most effective samples of romantic nonsense in existence -- a feat which he performed easily and well -- he publicly disclaimed any responsibility for its pleasant and cheap falsehood by borrowing the story and throwing it in the face of the public with the phrase As You Like It." To Touchstone's wry characterization of life as as process wherein we ripe and ripe and then rot and rot (2.7.26-8), Shaw rejoins, "Now considering that this fool's platitude is precisely the 'philosophy' of Hamlet, Macbeth ('Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,' etc.), Prospero, and the rest of them, there is something unendurably aggravating in Shakespeare giving himself airs with Touchstone, as if he, the immortal, ever, even at his sublimest, had anything different or better to say himself" (1986, p. 585). Shaw grumbles that Orlando's appeal for charity from Duke Senior and his co-mates ("If ever you have looked on better days," etc., 2.7.112-17) "would have revolted Mr. Pecksniff" in its pious show of weeping for the downtrodden: "Was ever such canting, snivelling, hypocritical unctuousness exuded by an actor anxious to show that he was above his profession, and was a thoroughly respectable man in public life?" The line in this speech that seems to Shaw particularly sanctimonious is, "If ever been where bells have knolled to church." Shaw crows in mock exultation: "How perfectly the atmosphere of the rented pew is caught in this incredible line!" (ed. Wilson, 28ff.).

12 The famous Seven Ages of Man speech delivered by Jaques in 2.7 elicits from Shaw nothing but incredulity for its recitation of dreary commonplaces. "Shakespeare . . . with his usual incapacity for pursuing any idea, wanders off iinto a grandmotherly Elizabethan edition of the advertisement of Cassell's 'Popular Educator'. How anybody over the age of seven can take any interest in a literary toy so silly in its conceit and common in its ideas as the Seven Ages of Man passes my understanding." Shaw admires the play's lean prose style, but cannot resist using even this praise as a whipping boy for those places where Shakespeare writes instead in blank verse, "which any fool can write." Corin and Le Beau espeeially lapse into blank verse, "like Mr. Silas Wegg, on the most inadequate provocation; but at least there is not much of it" (ed. Wilson, 28ff.). The best thing,about Rosalind, in Shaw's view, is that she wears a skirt for only a few minutes, though lamentably she does then change into a wedding dress at the end, which "ought to convert the stupidest champion of petticoats to rational dress." Orlando comes across to Shaw as an "amiable, strong, manly, handsome, shrewd-enough-to-take-care-of-himself, but safely stupid and totally unobservant young man" (34).

13 A substantial amount of scholarly writing about AYL in the twentieth century, especially in the earlier decades, concerns itself with source study: with Shakespeare's debt to Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde , to Cervantes, to Robin Hood legends, to Spenser and Sidney and the pastoral tradition, to Renaissance theories about melancholy, to Renaissance Christian humanism, and still more. Historical scholars in this vein include W. W. Greg (1905), W. P. Ker (1916), E. K. Chambers (1930), Oscar J. Campbell (1943), Alfred Harbage (1947), Madeleine Doran (1954), Harold Jenkins (1955), R. P. Draper (1958), Marco Mincoff (1960), John Vyvyan (1961), David Young (1972), and still others. The scholarly endeavor in such undertakings is to provide historical perspective on Shakespeare's creativity by assessing what he has learned and how he has tranformed it. Sidney and Spenser point ways in which the Elizabethan lyric could reshape pastoral convention. A comparion of Shakespeare's play with Rosalynde can suggest in what ways Shakespeare passes judgment on the pastoral ideal and at the same time adapts its conventions for his own dramatic purposes. Cervantes offers a potential model for ridiculing pastoralism while at the same time making use of some especially beautiful episodes. A study of pastoralism can reveal how it can serve the purposes of comedy by showing up the absurdity of both court life and rural life. The long vogue of the pastoral, going back to Virgil and Theocritus, can suggest the universality of the human need for simplicity and innocence. A close examination of Arden reveals that it is the French Ardenne, Warwickshire's Arden, a natural landscape of the classical Golden Age, and the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood and his merry men all drawn into a composite whole. Christian Platonism can show how the human spirit is sure to rebel at certain autocratic forms of government. The characters Shakespeare adds, not having found them in his sources -- Jaques, Touchstone, Audrey, William -- are particularly instructive in enabling us to see the dramatist at work. AYL makes use of traditional pastoral themes while commenting thoughtfully on the pastoral itself.

14 Such insights at their best offer much valuable information about the literary and cultural context in which Shakespeare wrote his play. As a method, this historical criticism offers itself as a kind of reaction against the prevailing character criticism of the nineteenth century and before. Historical scholars are not satisfied with appraisals of moral intent, or judging a play by how well it obeys the classical rules or satisfies emotional demands in the audience for poetic justice. Its practitioners tend to be not the poets and amateur essays of earlier generations but scholars associated with learned institutions. They tend to be keenly aware of the part played by artifice and convention in the construction of a play. A play is an artifice arising out of a historical mileu.

15 Another kind of historical research has to do with the Elizabethan theatre and conditions of performance in Shakespeare's day. Again, this kind of scholarly work has flourished since the early twentieth century. E. K. Chambers has amassed an impressive amount of information about Shakespeare and his theatrical world in The Elizabethan Stage (four volumes, 1923) and William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems (2 vols, 1930). Much more information has since been provided by Bernard Beckerman ( Shakespeare at the Globe , 1962, 1967), Richard Hosley in several essays, Andrew Gurr in several studies, Work of this kind has enabled critics to appreciate the fluidity of Shakespeare's stage in AYL , the absence of scenery in the original performances, the function of male disguise for women characters originally played by juvenile male actors, other significances of costuming, the role of music, and much more. See, for example, John Russell Brown's Shakespeare and His Comedies (1957, 2nd ed. 1962, 141ff.), describing how the play, having begun with images of disorder in both the family and the state, arrives in the final scene at formal groupings, music, song, and dance, all presided over by the god Hymen in such a way as to express 'Shakespeare's ideal of love's order'. Peter Brook (ed. 1953, 6ff.) notes that much of the spirit in a successful production of AYL "comes from the juxtaposing of scenes written in different keys," so that the director "must not be afraid of inconsistency." A production stands or falls, says Brook, by the success with which the elements of fight, song, dance, movement, adventure, disguise, and high spirits are combined "swiftly, in a strong, clear-cut way." A director who fails to provide a terrific wrestling in Act 1 "betrays his author." See also the essay in this volume on AYL in Performance.

16 Studies of language and imagery in AYL , as in other plays, have made great strides since the early twentieth century. Caroline Spurgeon (1935) notes how the conversation of Rosalind and Celia especially scintillates with witty images in a verbal firework display of similes, as when Rosalind imagines how time trots hard (i.e. joltingly, uncomfortably) with a maiden impatiently awaiting her marriage day, ambles lazily with a shiftless priest, gallops with a thief expecting to be hanged all too soon, and stays still with sleepy lawyers between court terms (3.2.304-27). Jaques too is given to artful similes; as Duke Senior says, when Jaques is in his sullen fits, "he's full of matter" (2.1.67-8). The play's nature images include many animal similes: pigeons feeding their young (1.2.90-1), a doe seeking food for its fawn (2.7.127), a weasel sucking eggs (2.5.12), wild geese flying (2.7.86), etc. Metaphors of gardening abound, of grafting (3.115), pruning (2.3.63), and weeding (2.7.45), generally bespeaking control and ordered harmony, Edward Armstrong (1946) pursues garden images in the biblical Garden of Eden, evoked for example when Touchstone jests about a tree yielding bad fruit (3.2.114). F. E. Halliday (1964) ventures that "probably no other play has so many aphorisms," as in "All the world's a stage" (2.7.138), or "Blow, blow, thou winter wind. / Thou art not so unkind / As man's ingratitude" (2.7.173-5). Punning is incessant, as in Touchstone's playing on "bear" ("bear with" and "carry") and "cross" (a burden and a coin) at 2.4.10-12. J. W. Lever (ed. 1967) points to the prevalence of hunting images, not just because the play is set in a forest but because hunting can describe ways in which humans pursue other humans. Brian Vickers (1968) analyses the supple use of prose in AYL for riddling repartee, witty sophistry, and rhetorical chop-logic. H. J.Oliver (ed. 1968) concurs in his admiration for Shakespeare as an artist in prose: 'The prose is more artfully balanced and formal than one might think on first reading or hearing it.'

17 Some astute critical observations on language and metaphor in AYL have pointed out how such devices often become reflexive, commenting on the very nature of dramatic art. For Edward I. Berry (1980), Rosalind, in her witty and playful control of the plot and its romantic outcome, is a figure of the playwright himself. Ruth Nevo (1980) essentially agrees, arguing that Rosalind's activities embody "comic pleasure itself," as she acts out a "liberating playful fantasy" testing herself and the other characters as well in terms of their capacities for loving commitment and happiness. Robert Watson (2003) takes the play's title, As You Like It , to signal a profound thematic interest in simile as an expression of the human wish to be coupled with others in likeness while at the same time fearing the loss of autonomy in too close an engagement with the loved person.

18 In what ways does AYL reflect current events in the late 1590s? The question has fascinated a number of critics. They are generally agreed that the play shows a timely interest in the pastoral, in literary satire, in the stylish affection of melancholy, and in faddish allusions to humours psychology, as manifested in George Chapman's, An Humorous Day's Mirth (1597) and Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour (quarto version, 1598), and elsewhere. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London issued an edict prohibiting satires and epigrams on 1 June 1599, and calling for existing existing copies to be burned in public. Alan Brissenden (ed. AYL , 1993) proposes that the printing of AYL may have been 'stayed' because it contained Jaques's defense of satire. Richard McCabe (1981) wonders if Celia's line, 'the little wit that fools have was silenced' (1.2.85-6) alludes to this suppression of satire. A more plausible explanation, as Juliet Dusinberre (ed. AYL , 2006) observes, is that 'complaints against satire are ubiquitous in the 1590s'. Touchstone's talk of 'the most capricious poet, honest Ovid', among the Goths should perhaps remind us that Ovid's Amores was one of the book burned in 1599; see Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare and Ovid (1993, 159).

19 More problematic is the play's putative relationship to current political controversy and particularly to the trouble being stirred up by Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, which would erupt into an abortive rebellion in 1601. George Chalmers was the first to suggest, in 1799, that the exile of Duke Senior to the Forest of Arden might reflect the sequestration of Essex when he returned from Ireland, having been unsuccessful there, in September 1599. Robert Cartwright (1864) adds to this hypothetical scenario by proposing that Duke Frederick is a stand-in for Lord Cecil. Such picklock interpretations quickly get out of hand. Cartwright, for instance, sees Orlando and Oliver as representing Christopher Marlowe and Robert Greene. Anti-Stratfordians get into the act: Thomas Looney (1920) and Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn (1962), among others, identify Touchstone as the Earl of Oxford, with Touchstone's triumphing over William for the hand of Audrey as an implicit denial by William Shakespeare that he was the author of this and other plays. Jaques is variously identified with John Lyly, Essex, Philip Sidney, Oxford, and still others. See Knowles, ed. AYL , 537-8, for a fuller account.

20 More sanely, but still controversially, Juliet Dusinberre (2006) pursues the candidacy of Essex, that charismatic and troublesome focus of political restiveness in the late years of Elizabeth's reign. The Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare had appealed for patronage in his early poems, was a close associate of Essex. Shakespeare seemingly alludes to Essex as a heroic warrior in the last chorus of Henry V (1599). Troilus and Cressida may well echo the strive-torn atmosphere of Essex's failed rebellion in 1601. In early 1599 Essex was poised for departure to Ireland, amidst high hopes but also with a marked awareness of Queen Elizabeth's displeasure at delays in the expedition. Dusinberre thinks AYL may have been written for the delectation of the Essex circle. Is Essex portrayed in the play as a Robin-Hood figure leading his gallant associates into a kind of exile like that of Duke Senior and his co-mates? An obvious difficulty in this interpretation is that Essex in early 1599 was not yet in disgrace, though Essex did complain to the Queen in March 1599 that his appointment to Ireland amounted to a kind of enforced rustication. Could the fiction have anticipated the reality? Do the rivalries in the play reflect hard feelings between Essex and Sir Walter Ralegh? Is the play's reconciliation in harmony a plea for a reconciliation that was not to be fulfilled? Michael Hattaway (2000) prefers instead to see a political connection in the play's implicit comment on pastoral complaints against enclosure and other injustices of the landowning system. As Hattaway says, 'pastoral is a kind of history, not an escape from politics but a reading of politics' (24).

21 No less controversial as a topical reading is Dusinberre's contention that the character of Touchstone was written not for Robert Armin, as commonly argued by theater historians, but for Will Kemp. Armin joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men late in 1599. The traditional view is that a shift in comic styles is discernible, from Kemp's more clownish roles of Bottom the Weaver in A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595) and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing (1598-9) to the wittily wise fools like Touchstone, Feste in Twelfth Night (1600-2), Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well (c. 1601-5), and the Fool in King Lear (c. 1605-6). Whether Kemp also played Falstaff in 1 and 2 Henry IV (1596-8) is debated. The date of Kemp's departure is unsure, and so is the exact date of AYL . Armin was known for his witty philosophical line of fooling, and was even published in this vein, so that the idea that Shakespeare's company recruited him to give Shakespeare the opportunity to develop a deeper and more melancholy sort of folly is attractive; but then Armin was famous also as a singer. Feste, Lavatch, and Lear's Fool are much given to song, but Touchstone does not sing. Kemp was also a phenomenal dancer. Dusinberre, who argues for a date of AYL early in 1599, allows that Armin may have taken over the part when Kemp left. The point of the as-yet-unresolved argument would then seem to be, for whom did Shakespeare originate the role? If for Kemp, the puzzle would still remain: why is it that Touchstone's delicious foolery seems so well suited to the actor who would go on to be Feste, Lavatch, and Lear's Fool? How specialized was the role of the fool in Shakespeare's plays?

22 Issues of gender and sexuality have gained increasing visibility in our postmodern world of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The idea that sexual identity is largely performed or constructed rather than genetically fixed lends itself adroitly to Shakespeare's practice in this play (as also in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice , Twelfth Night , and Cymbeline ) of centering his plot around a young woman, played by a boy actor in Shakespeare's company, who cross-dresses as a young man. Unquestionably, Shakespeare is playing with ambiguities of sexual identity, and with hints of homoeroticism; after all, Rosalind chooses to disguise herself with the name of Ganymede, Zeus's young male cupbearer and lover. James Bulman (2004) is on record as saying, a propos of an all-male 1991 production of AYL, 'It is time to bring Cheek By Jowl's As You Like It out of the closet' (quoted by Dusinberre, 20). Bulman rightly sees that production as having raised issues of contemporary gay politics about homophobia, AIDS, and the like. The relationship between Rosalind (Adrian Lester) and Celia (Tom Hollander) was delicately balanced between sisterly and gay affection. The scenes of courtship between Rosalind and Orlando (Patrick Toomey) were, as Bulman describes them, "played unabashedly as two men pledging their love to one another."

23 "Feminist thought has highlighted the audacity and originality of Shakespeare's conception of Rosalind," writes Dusinberre (9), "analysing the ways in which the play participates in an Elizabethan questioning of attitudes to women." Among the critics who pay particular attention to these aspects of AYL are Alan Bray ( Homosexuality in Renaissance England , 1982 ), Camille Paglia ( Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson , 1990), Stephen Orgel ( Impersonations , 1996), Mario DiGangi ( The Homoerotics of Early Modern Drama , 1997, focusing particularly on the mythological story of Jupiter's desire for his page Ganymede), Valerie Traub ( Desire and Anxiety: Circulations of Sexuality in Shakesparean Drama , 1997, arguing that the practice of having boys play women's roles enhanced the opportunity for depicting multiple sexual desires), and Theodora A. Jankowski, Pure Risistance: Queer Virginity in Early Modern English Drama (2000). Stage history, as Dusinberre observes (17-18), has often documented the thinness of the line separating masculine from feminine in AYL . Michael Redgrave fell in love with Edith Evans as the Rosalind to his Orlando in the Old Vic's production of 1936, directed by Esm{`e} Church: being bisexual himself, did Redgrave fall in love with Rosalind, or Ganymede, or some admixture of the two? Unisex styles in clothing and haircut in recent years complicate the issue of how to convey the maleness of Rosalind's disguise, but by the same token enrich the opportunities for exploring ambiguity of sexual identity. In 1599, Shakespeare had to negotiate the delicate matter of widespread disapproval of cross-dressing women; puritanical opposition to theater thrived on what was regarded as transgressive, and male egos felt threatened by women assuming male roles. The play does close on an array of heterosexual unions, though it arrives at that conclusion in an endlessly playful manner. Rosalind in her/his epilogue thereupon courts both women and men in the audience, erasing the boundary also between stage character and stage performer. AYL is thus a play with a particular relevance for theater audiences and readers today.

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In As You Like It , witty words and romance play out against the disputes of divided pairs of brothers. Orlando’s older brother, Oliver, treats him badly and refuses him his small inheritance from their father’s estate; Oliver schemes instead to have Orlando die in a wrestling match. Meanwhile, Duke Frederick has forced his older brother, Duke Senior, into exile in the Forest of Arden.

Duke Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, and Duke Frederick’s daughter, Celia, meet the victorious Orlando at the wrestling match; Orlando and Rosalind fall in love. Banished by her uncle, Rosalind assumes a male identity and leaves with Celia and their fool, Touchstone. Orlando flees Oliver’s murderous plots.

In the Forest of Arden, Rosalind, in her male disguise, forms a teasing friendship with Orlando. Oliver, searching for Orlando, reforms after Orlando saves his life. Rosalind reveals her identity, triggering several weddings, including her own with Orlando and Celia’s with Oliver. Duke Frederick restores the dukedom to Duke Senior, who leaves the forest with his followers.

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Shakespeares: As you like it - Essay Example

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