As You Like It (1599)

Rosalind:

• As great a creation as Juliet is, we make a quantum leap to the character of Rosalind--probably the greatest young woman Shakespeare created. All bright young women in literature, plays, and film must be compared to her; she sets the gold standard.
• Our great critic Harold Bloom can hardly find the superlatives for her: "Rosalind is unique in Shakespeare, perhaps indeed in Western drama, because it is so difficult to achieve a perspective that she herself does not anticipate and share.... The exuberant Rosalind is vital and beautiful, in spirit, in body, in mind.... Poise is Rosalind's particular endowment.... Rosalind is the most admirable personage in all of Shakespeare.... Rosalind is a joyous representative of life's possible freedoms.... To be in love, and yet to see and feel the absurdity of it, one needs to go to school with Rosalind....
• Take some time to think about Rosalind--her poise, her ability to see and yet to participate, her ability to love and yet to be amused by love, her ability to see Orlando's shortcomings and yet to give herself to him. [Discussion Topic 1: Rosalind's character--AYLI1]

The forest of Arden:

The range of characters:

• The play has fun arranging pairs of characters for us--Rosalind and Celia, Rosalind and Orlando, sets of brothers, two "fools."
• In addition, this play explores all sorts of friendship and erotic possibilities. What effect does this exploration of characters and mixing and matching of couples create? [Discussion Topic 3: Couplings--AYLI3]

The Universe of Ptolemy

• From the time of Ptolemy until Galileo, the earth was pictured at the center of the universe. Eight spheres revolved around the earth, each creating its own sound. All eight together created the "harmony of the spheres." Duke Senior alludes to this when he talks of the "discord in the spheres" (2.7.6) created by Jaques' grumpy views.
• Here is a large representation found in Toledo, Spain, of the Ptolemaic universe. The earth is in the center.

Act 1:

One brother, Duke Senior, is overthrown by his younger brother, Frederick, and is living in exile in the Forest of Arden.

Similarly, a young man, Orlando, is hated by his older brother, Oliver.

The exiled Duke Senior has a daughter, Rosalind (the star of this play), whose best friend is her cousin, Celia, the daughter of the bad brother, Frederick.

Rosalind falls in love with the mistreated young man, Orlando. The bad brother, Oliver, mistreats Orlando so badly that Orlando has to flee into the Forest of Arden. In addition, bad Frederick is worried about his daughter, Celia’s, friendship for the daughter of his exiled brother, Rosalind, and so banishes Rosalind. Celia sticks with her dear cousin, Rosalind, and both flee into the Forest of Arden, Rosalind disguised as a boy named Ganymede. They take along Touchstone, a court jester, who pokes fun at everybody.

Act 2:

Orlando, tired and poor, happens across Duke Senior in the Forest and thinks he has to rob the Duke to get food. Instead, the Duke is gracious and treats Orlando well.

We also meet in the forest Silvius, a love-sick shepherd. He is in love with this unworthy little b----, Phebe. And then there is Jaques, who provides cynical commentary.

Act 3:

The bad Duke Frederick orders the bad brother Oliver to find the good brother, Orlando, and bring him back to court.

Orlando is in the forest, pining after his new girlfriend, Rosalind, whom he has lost since they both were banished. Orlando is wandering around the forest like a love-sick Romeo, posting love poems on trees. Rosalind finds the poems written to her and is, of course, now even more in love with him. However, she’s no dope about guys and realizes that guys need to be trained and house-broken so she meets up with him but stays in her disguise as the boy Ganymede. As Ganymede, she is going to try to cure Orlando of his love-sickness by role-playing that she is Rosalind with Orlando. Orlando then pretends to woo Rosalind in the person of Ganymede, who is really Rosalind in disguise.

To complicate things, that little b---- Phebe falls in love with Ganymede/Rosalind.

And if that’s not enough, the worldly Touchstone thinks he has found an easy lay in this dumb slut, Audrey.

Act 4:

Ganymede/Rosalind carries on the shape-him-up role-playing with Orlando but falls even more deeply in love with him whenever he leaves.

Orlando meets up with his mean brother, saves his life, but is wounded. Mean Oliver is converted by his brother’s goodness to become good. Oliver takes the bloody handkerchief to Ganymede/Rosalind and he/she faints.

Act 5:

Oliver falls in love with Celia. Presto-chango, Rosalind becomes a girl again and marries Orlando. Bitchy Phebe can no longer marry Ganymede and so has to marry Silvius. Touchstone gets to sack down with Audrey. Evil Duke Frederick converts and becomes a monk. Jaques thinks everybody is crazy.

Study Questions for Shakespeare's As You Like It

1. Characterize the separate worlds of the court and the forest of Arden. What types of events occur in each? How do they compare to each other?

2. The play is in the pastoral tradition. Read the intro on what a pastoral is. Do we still have any aspects of pastoral in our culture or popular art? How do our pastoral thoughts compare to those in AYLI?

3. As a pastoral, what realities does the play satirize and what ideals does it yearn for?

4. Watch the four sets of lovers. How does the relationship of Touchstone and Audrey compare to those of the other three sets of lovers?

5. This play explores all sorts of friendship and erotic possibilities. What effect does this exploration have on the audience/reader?

6. Why does Rosalind stay in costume as a boy after she meets Orlando in the forest? What is she trying to achieve? Is she more typical of a male or a female?

7. Compare Celia to Rosalind. What are they like and why do they marry the men they do? Are the two couples--Celia and Oliver and Rosalind and Orlando--well matched?

8. Do you believe in Oliver's reformation? Why or why not? What does it mean when Orlando finds Oliver asleep with the snake and the lioness nearby?

9. What purpose does Jaques serve in the play? How are we to take him? Is he a fool like Touchstone? or a cynic like Mercutio?

10. What do the characters learn about love in the play?

11. Why does the god of marriage, Hymen, appear at the end of the play? Is marriage in this play shown to be a single, uniform reality?

12. Examine any of these well-known passages. Explain them in their context in the play:

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Good old man, how well in thee appears

The constant service of the antique world,

When service sweat for duty, not for meed!

Thou art not for the fashion of these times,

Where none will sweat but for promotion.?Act ii Sc. 3

All the world 's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.?Act ii Sc. 7

Study Questions by J. Zurek.