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A Study Guide |
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Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003 . My father charged you in his will to give me good education: you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it; therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes. (1. 1. 23).......Meanwhile, two other men–Duke Frederick and his younger brother Duke Senior–also live at odds. Frederick had unjustly seized the dukedom of Senior and banished him to the Forest of Arden. There, Senior and his loyal followers learn to live like Robin Hood and his merry men, enjoying all the simple pleasures of a rustic existence. As Senior says, And this our life exempt from public haunt.......Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, remains behind at the court of Frederick. Rosalind is the central character in the play, the hub around whom the wheel of fortune revolves. At Duke Frederick’s behest, Rosalind is to serve as a companion for his daughter, Celia. It so  happens
that Rosalind has a sympathizer in Celia, for the two of them have been
best friends since childhood. Whenever Rosalind pines for her missing father,
Celia is there to comfort her. She says, “I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet
my coz, be merry” (1. 2. 3). Rosalind soon will have good cause to be merry,
for she is destined to fall in love with Orlando, the young man maltreated
by his brother Oliver. Here is what happens:
.......Orlando somehow flourishes on his own, like an unattended flower, displaying the spirit and courtly bearing of his father, Rowland de Boys. However, restricted as he is by his brother, Orlando lapses into melancholy. When he learns that Duke Frederick’s champion wrestler, Charles, will take on challengers, Orlando bids to compete. After all, he has nothing to lose but his miserable life. Oliver, jealous of the fine young man that his brother is becoming, urges Charles to break Orlando’s neck during the match. .......Rosalind and Celia, present to witness the competition, try to dissuade Orlando from competing. Rosalind even attempts to have the match canceled. .......But the match goes on and Orlando, heartened by the kindness shown by Celia and Rosalind, defeats Charles! Duke Frederick admires the young man for his courage and skill. But when Frederick learns Orlando is the son of Sir Rowland, who was a friend of the banished Duke Senior, he leaves the scene in a huff. Rosalind, however, rewards Orlando with a chain from her neck. Later, when Rosalind and Celia are discussing Orlando, Frederick bursts in and banishes Rosalind, for she reminds him too much of her father, Duke Senior, and his late friend, Sir Rowland. Frederick declares: Within these ten days if that thou be’st [be] found.......Disguised as a man and calling herself Ganymede, Rosalind leaves to seek out her father in the forest of Arden. Celia accompanies Rosalind, wearing the clothes of a country maid and posing as Ganymede’s sister, Aliena. Tagging along is Duke Frederick’s saucy-tongued court jester, Touchstone. In the forest, they first encounter an old man, Corin, talking with a young shepherd, Silvius. Silvius is deep in the throes of melancholy because the woman he loves, a shepherdess named Phebe, does not return his love. Rosalind empathizes with Silvius, for she now knows what it is like to be in love but not be united with the beloved. Rosalind contracts with Corin to buy a cottage for her, and she and Celia move in. .......Orlando, too, must leave. Oliver’s elderly servant, Adam, has warned Orlando that the evil Oliver vows to burn Orlando’s chamber that very night as Orlando sleeps. Orlando flees with Adam to the safety of the forest. Rosalind and Celia buy a flock of sheep and become shepherds. When old Adam complains of hunger, Orlando, sword in hand, demands food from Duke Senior’s followers; but they generously share their food. When Senior learns Orlando is the son of his old friend, Sir Rowland, he takes Orlando under his protection. .......Meanwhile, Duke Frederick, believing that Celia and Rosalind have run off with Orlando, orders Oliver to find his brother and bring him back dead or alive. If he fails in this task, he will lose all of his possessions. .......In the forest, Orlando thinks often of Rosalind and carves her name on trees and attaches love poems. At the same time, Touchstone tests the worth of every character he meets in the forest with his quick-witted rejoinders–the kind he delivered at court as a fool–spicing his language with puns and paradoxes to lay bare the marrow of his interlocutors. After Touchstone teases Rosalind about how her name is appearing on trees everywhere in the forest, Rosalind (still disguised as Ganymede) crosses paths one day with Orlando and playfully chides him about abusing the trees by carving his poems into them. Then she asks whether his rhymes truly reflect the love that he feels. Orlando replies, “Neither rime nor reason can express how much” (3. 2. 152). .......Rosalind says Orlando can cure himself of his foolish love if he will come to her cottage each day and woo her as if she were Rosalind. In this way, he will learn of the ways of whimsical ladies and gradually fall out of love. Intrigued by this proposal, Orlando does as she asks. However, Orlando only falls more deeply in love with the memory of Rosalind as he takes part in the mock courtship. Rosalind’s love also deepens. .......While searching for Orlando, Oliver falls asleep under a tree. A green snake entwines his neck, preparing to kill him. Nearby a lioness awaits her turn at Oliver. Orlando happens upon the scene on his way to woo Ganymede. He scares off the snake and, as Oliver awakens, draws his sword and kills the lion at the cost of a deep wound to an arm. Suddenly, Oliver repents and becomes a loving brother. Because Orlando’s wound has made him too weak to continue to Ganymede’s cottage, Oliver goes in his stead and explains what happened, displaying a bloody handkerchief as proof of Orlando’s wound. Rosalind faints. .......While at the cottage, Oliver falls in love with Celia, and they vow to marry the next day. Rosalind (as Ganymede) goes to Orlando and tells him she is versed in magic and will conjure up Rosalind the following day so that he can marry her. On the appointed day, Rosalind appears as herself while the wedding guests, including Duke Senior and his followers look on. By this time, Touchstone has found a love of his own–Audrey, a country wench. In addition, Phebe, through a little trickery worked by Rosalind, agrees to marry Silvius. Thus, on the wedding day, four couples exchange vows: Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audry. But it so happens that there is also another event to celebrate. Jaques de Boys, the third son of Rowland de Boys and the brother of Orlando and Oliver, arrives to announce that a holy man has shown Duke Frederick the error of his ways. Consequently, Frederick has ceded his crown back to Duke Senior and retired from the corrupt and wordly life. .......Presumably everyone lives happily ever after. .
 . Protagonist: Rosalind Antagonist: Duke Frederick .. Duke Senior: Rightful duke living in banishment with his followers in the forest of Arden. He is reminiscent of Robin Hood. Duke Frederick: Duke Senior’s brother, who usurps Senior's dominions. Amiens, Jaques: Lords attending on the banished duke. Orlando, Oliver, Jaques de Boys: Sons of Sir Rowland de Boys. Orlando is in love with Rosalind, daughter of Duke Senior. Oliver, the eldest son, maltreats Orlando and denies him his full share in their father's bequest. Jaques (not to be confused with the lord of the same name) is away at school, prospering. Rosalind: Daughter of Duke Senior. She is the ideal heroine–intelligent, beautiful, courageous, cheerful, morally upright. Celia:
Daughter of Duke Frederick and good friend of Rosalind.
Le Beau: Courtier attending upon Frederick. Charles: Wrestler in the service of Frederick. Adam, Dennis: Servants of Oliver. Adam, an old man who is mistreated by Oliver, befriends Orlando. Touchstone: Clown. His presence in the play makes others react in a way that reveals their qualities; hence, he lives up to his name. Literally a touchstone is a black stone used to assay the purity of precious metals. When a sample believed to contain gold or silver is rubbed against a touchstone, the sample leaves a streak on the stone. Acid is then used to burn away impurities that adulterate the gold or silver in the sample, leaving behind only the precious metal. Assayers then can evaluate the quality of the sample. Sir Oliver Martext: A vicar. Corin, Silvius: Shepherds. Audrey: Country wench. William: Country fellow in love with Audrey. Representative of Hymen: Hymen was the god of marriage in Greek mythology. Phebe: Shepherdess. Minor Characters: Lords, pages, forester, and attendants. . The action takes place in a palace in northern Europe and in the Arden Forest. There is an Arden Forest in Warwickshire, England, and an Ardennes Forest in continental Europe. The latter forest encompasses parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Thomas Lodge, who wrote a play that Shakespeare used as the source for As You Like It, earned a medical degree in France and practiced medicine in Belgium, not far from the Ardennes forest. . The
climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a
novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins
to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting
event in a series of events. The climax of As You Like It occurs,
according to the first definition, when Rosalind faints after learning
that a lion has wounded Orlando, then decides to reveal her true identity
to bring about a resolution to the plot complications. According to the
second definition, the climax occurs when a person representing Hymen,
the god of marriage in Greek mythology, enters in Act V, Scene IV, with
Rosalind no longer wearing her disguise as the male Ganymede. Hymen then
unites Rosalind with her father, Duke Senior, and her beloved, Orlando,
by reciting these lines:
..............ROSALIND.....[To
Duke Senior] To you I give myself, for I am yours.
. Extended Metaphor: Act I . In extended metaphors in Act I, Shakespeare personifies Fortune and Nature in order to convey a central theme of the play: that Fortune and Nature often work at odds. For example, Fortune may bestow such gifts as wealth, position, and power on a person simply because  he
was born into the right family. However, if he lacks certain gifts of Nature–such
as nobility, foresight, courage, and wisdom–he will not have the wherewithal
to manage his material gifts properly. On the other hand, Nature may bestow
a bounty of gifts on a person whom Fortune has ignored. This person will
have the faculties to make his way in the world but not the material gifts
to succeed without a struggle. The extended metaphors, in the form of personifications,
occur in Scene II in a discussion of Fortune and Nature between Celia and
Rosalind:
. ..............CELIA.......Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from ..............her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. ..............ROSALIND.......I would we could do so, for her benefits are ..............mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman ..............doth most mistake in her gifts to women. ..............CELIA.......'Tis true; for those that she makes fair she scarce ..............makes honest, and those that she makes honest she ..............makes very ill-favouredly. ..............ROSALIND.......Nay, now thou goest from Fortune's office to ..............Nature's: Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, ..............not in the lineaments of Nature. . Extended Metaphor: Act II . In Act II, in another extended metaphor, Shakespeare philosophizes through Jaques (spelled without c before the q), a lord in the service of Duke Senior. The metaphorical passage–focusing on "The Seven Ages of Man"–is one of the most famous passages in all of Shakespeare. The passage is stunning poetry–in fact, it is often included in anthologies as a separate poem demonstrating the remarkable power and beauty of Shakespeare's words. However, it is cynical and pessimistic in its metaphorical message, making the world a stage and human beings actors in the gloomy drama of life. Each man, it says, goes through life playing various parts and ends up old and toothless, without being the better for his experience, wondering, What was life all about, anyway? However, although this passage seems out of place in this mostly uplifting play, it does serve a purpose: to illuminate, by comparison and contrast, the enthusiasm and optimism of other characters in the play as they pursue their heart's desires. Following is the passage: .
Biblical Allusions and Symbolism . It is possible that Shakespeare intended the rifts between the two sets of brothers in the play–(1) Duke Frederick and Duke Senior and (2) Oliver and Orlando–to symbolize the deadly rift between Cain and Abel as described in Chapter 4 of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. Cain and Abel were sons of Adam. In Shakespeare’s play, Adam is an elderly servant who attempts to pacify Orlando and Oliver–as if the biblical Adam had come alive to temper the anger between his sons. Shakespeare’s Adam is described as very old, like the biblical Adam, who lived to an extremely old age. There is also a direct reference to the biblical Adam in Act II, Scene I, when Duke Senior extols the carefree life of the forest: Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,It also appears that the Forest of Arden is the Garden of Eden–a new Eden, sans serpent–that brings only happiness to those who enter it. Orlando does not eat of forbidden fruit on a tree. Rather, he carves on trees poems to lovely Rosalind. When Rosalind shows his poems to Touchstone, the latter says–in an apparent biblical allusion (and a play on words)–“Truly, the tree yields bad fruit” (3. 2. 44). However, although the poems are less than sterling, they do bear good fruit: Rosalind, after discovering the identity of the author, Orlando, intensifies her love for him. Structure
. Date Written: 1599 or earlier First Printing: 1623 as part of the First Folio Probable Main Source: Rosalynde: Euphues Golden Legacie (1590), a prose romance by Thomas Lodge (1557-1625). Lodge based his romance, in turn, on The Tale of Gamelyn, an anonymous poem of 900 lines written in the middle of the 14th Century. This poem tells the story of Gamelyn de Boundys, a young man whose brother confiscates his inheritance. Gamelyn is forced to live as a forest outlaw but eventually recovers what is rightfully his. Number of Words in Complete Public-Domain Text: 22,960 Type of Play As
You Like It is a comedy in the form of a pastoral romance.
Study Questions and Essay Topics 1. Rosalind falls in love
with Orlando upon first seeing him. Likewise, Oliver falls in love with
Celia when they first meet. In an informative ....essay,
define “love at first sight” and explain whether it can really be true
love or is simply infatuation.
1. All the world’s a stage: This clause is the English translation of the Latin motto of the Globe Theatre: Totus mundus agit histrionem. ....The clause begins the extended metaphor in which the world becomes a stage and the people–in various stages of their lives–become ....the actors. 2. Ballad: Poem. 3. Bubble reputation: Fame is like a bubble: it develops quickly, then bursts. 4. Pard: Leopard or panther. 5. Even in the cannon’s mouth: To achieve fame, the soldier will even charge when enemy cannons are firing. 6. Justice . . . lined: Some judges in Shakespeare’s time accepted gifts, such as capons (immature roosters that are castrated and well ....fed to improve the quality of their meat), in return for a favorable ruling. 7. Saws: Proverbs, maxims, aphorisms, sayings. 8. Pantaloon: Foolish old man. Pantaloons were stock characters in a type of Italian comedy called commedia dell’arte, which became ....popular in the middle of the Sixteenth Century. Actors improvised their parts after receiving an outline of the plot. 9. Hose . . . shank: His knee-high stockings (hose) no longer fit his shrinking, withering shank (lower leg). 10. Second childishness: Senility. 11. Sans: French for without. (French pronunciation: sahn, spoken nasally; English pronunciation: sanz. Shakespeare used the latter.) 12. Custom: The experience of life in the forest. 13. Painted Pomp: Life at court, with all of its artificial trappings. 14. Penalty of Adam . . . wind: As descendants of Adam and inheritors of original sin, the men–though they may live in a kind of Eden–do ....feel the sting of a cold wind. |