Summary and Analysis of Act 1
Act One, Scene One Orlando is in the orchard of his brother's house speaking with Adam, an old servant of the family. Orlando complains about the way his eldest brother Oliver treats him. Since Oliver is the eldest brother, he inherited all of Sir Rowland De Bois' estate as well as the responsibility for taking care of his younger brothers. Orlando is upset that he is kept away from school and forced to work with the animals at home. The see Oliver coming and Adam quickly hides. Oliver arrives and orders Orlando to do some work instead of standing idly around. Orlando spitefully tells Oliver that he has as much of their father's blood in him as Oliver does. Oliver angrily lunges at Orlando, who quickly grabs his older brother by the throat and holds him. Adam comes out of his hiding place and asks them to be patient with one another. Orlando replies that Oliver has denied him an education as befits his rank as a nobleman. He therefore asks Oliver to give him the small portion of money that Sir Rowland left him in the will (a thousand crowns) so that he may leave and seek his fortune elsewhere. Oliver agrees to give Orlando a part of his inheritance and then turns to Adam and tells him to "Get you with him, you old dog" (1.1.69). Adam is offended to be treated thus after his many years of service to the family and leaves with Orlando. Oliver meets with Charles, the Duke's wrestler, and asks what is happening at court. Charles tells him it is the same old news, namely the new Duke has banished his brother the old Duke. The old Duke left with several lords and now lives in the forest of Ardenne where "they live like the old Robin Hood of England" (1.1.100-101). Rosalind, the old Duke's daughter, has remained at court with her cousin, the new Duke's daughter. Charles then informs Oliver that he has learned that Orlando plans to challenge him the next day in the Duke's presence. Since Charles is fighting for his reputation, he indicates that he might end up hurting Orlando and he hopes that Oliver can dissuade his brother from challenging. Oliver cruelly tells Charles that Orlando has been plotting against his life, and that if Charles defeats Orlando but does not seriously injure him then Orlando will likely plot against him as well. Charles promises to hurt Orlando as much as possible, to the point where he cannot walk anymore. Act One, Scene Two Rosalind is saddened by the banishment of her father and Celia is trying to cheer her up. Celia urges her cousin to be happier and promises that she will always treat her with affection even though their roles in the world were reversed when Duke Frederick usurped Duke Senior's position. Rosalind agrees to try and be happy and proposes playing games such as pretending to fall in love. Touchstone, a clown, enters and cuts their conversation short. He tells Celia that her father wants to see her. She makes him provide some witty entertainment, playing with words until he states, "The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly" (1.2.72-73). Le Beau, a courtier to Duke Frederick, arrives and the two women joke that he will force them to listen to news. Le Beau is greeted by Celia in French. He tries to tell them about a wrestling match but Touchstone and the women start to joke around with words again, causing him to lose track of the conversation. Le Beau finally is allowed to speak, and he tells them that Charles wrestled with three brothers and beat each of them in turn. The father, having seen all his sons defeated, is mourning their loss and the fact that the eldest broke three ribs in the process. He finally mentions to the women that if they stay where they are they will be able to watch the next match since it was appointed at this particular spot. They happily agree to stay and watch. Duke Frederick enters, telling his men that Orlando will not be dissuaded from wrestling with Charles and therefore deserves to suffer his fate. Rosalind interrupts the conversation and tells Frederick that she will speak to Orlando and try to convince him not to wrestle. Celia begs Orlando to let her have her father call off the wrestling match. He tells the ladies that he has no one to lament him in the world and that he is willing to risk even death in pursuit of victory over Charles. Rosalind finally gives him her blessing, wishing him victory. Frederick sets up the match but tells them that they will fight until one of them is thrown to the ground. Orlando manages to get Charles and throw him, knocking him unconscious and thereby winning. Duke Frederick asks Orlando what his name is, and he replies that he is Orlando, the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois. Frederick is not happy to hear this since Sir Rowland was his enemy when he usurped the throne. He wishes Orlando well and departs without giving him any prizes. Celia is ashamed by her father's envious treatment of Orlando, but Rosalind is thrilled because her father was close friends with Sir Rowland. The two women approach Orlando and Rosalind gives him a chain from around her neck. He is unable to even say thank you because he is made speechless by Rosalind. She turns to leave, then thinks he has called her back, but finally exits with Celia. Le Beau returns and warns Orlando that the Duke has turned against him. He councils Orlando to leave immediately. Orlando first asks him who the two women were, and learns that Rosalind gave him the necklace. Act One, Scene Three Rosalind is also speechless after having met Orlando, and Celia marvels that her cousin has fallen in love so quickly. Duke Frederick arrives and angrily orders Rosalind to pack her things and leave. He tells her that if she is caught within twenty miles of the court then he will kill her. She protests that she has never done anything to him, but he still accuses her of being a traitor. Celia protests on Rosalind's behalf but Frederick remains unmoved and banishes Rosalind. Celia tells Rosalind that she will leave with her. Rosalind cleverly decides that they should dress as men and thus go to her father in the woods in disguise. She chooses the name Ganymede and Celia chooses to be called Aliena, meaning the "estranged one". They then agree to also get Touchstone to travel with them in order to provide some entertainment during their travel. Analysis Shakespeare deals with many themes throughout As You Like It that relate to the Elizabethan society he worked in. One of those themes is that of primogeniture, a policy whereby the eldest son inherits everything. Orlando, being the youngest brother in his family, faces the problem that he has received a meager inheritance as a result of this rule. Oliver also happens to be a nightmare version of the tyrannical older brother. He plots against Orlando and tries to have the wrestler Charles kill his younger brother. Shakespeare's questioning of primogeniture is given a further twist in the play by the fact that Duke Frederick has usurped the dukedom from his older brother. The issue of inheritance is therefore an underlying theme throughout this play and cannot be ignored. A further comparison between the play and England is the reference to Duke Senior and his men as Robin Hoods. They are described as, "they live like the old Robin Hood of England" (1.1.100-101). Shakespeare thereby conjures up an image of England even though we are in foreign country. This serves to make the play more immediate for his audience. Invoking Robin Hood also serves a second purpose, namely that of establishing which Duke is good and which Duke is evil. Robin Hood is a story that all Elizabethan theater audiences would have been familiar with and it is a way to immediately give Duke Senior a personality without having to write too many lines for him into the play. One of the brilliant things about As You Like It is the way Shakespeare invokes double-meanings. This is frequently done with word association. The forest of Arden, Ardenne, Arcadia, or Eden is a prime example. Ardenne is a forest that is located between France, Luxembourg and Belgium, whereas the Forest of Arden is actually an English forest located near where Shakespeare was born in Warwickshire. Arden also happens to the be maiden name of Shakespeare's mother. The play itself includes pastoral themes from The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney, thereby invoking the image of Arcadia, or paradise. The word further bears a resemblance to Eden, the biblical paradise where Adam and Eve first got together, not an entirely unrealistic interpretation given the four marriages with which the play ends. A further combination of words is that of Orlando, Rowland, or Roland. Merely by mixing up the letters it is easy to see how similar the two names are. Indeed, Orlando is often compared to his father, Sir Rowland. This man, who is deceased already when the play begins, bears a striking resemblance to Charlemagne's Sir Roland, a great medieval knight. Orlando follows in this spirit, saying, "and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude" (1.1.19-20). Orlando will take advantage of his inborn greatness to defeat Charles the Wrestler and later save his brother from a lion. Themes of sexuality and sexual identity run rampant throughout this play. There are a great deal of homosexual overtones between almost all the characters, men and women. This is first evidenced by the description of Rosalind and Celia. Charles says, "never two ladies loved as they do" (1.1.97), and that "she [Celia] would have followed her [Rosalind's] exile, or have died to stay behind her" (1.1.94-95). Celia later tells Rosalind, "herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight that I love thee" (1.2.6-7). Later, Celia argues with her father about separating them, We still have slept together, Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together, And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans>br> Still we went coupled and inseparable. (1.3.67-70) In this description of Rosalind and Celia they are like Hermia and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In much the same way they must become separated before they can learn to love properly, before they can become full women and marry with their husbands. Indeed, the entire escape into the forest will actually serve to separate them in the end, allowing them to emerge as independent woman rather than "Juno's swans". The names that Rosalind and Celia assume for themselves adds to the sexual confusion of the play. Rosalind tells Celia, "look you call me Ganymede" (1.3.119). Ganymede was the cup-bearer of the gods, a young boy whom Jove fell in love with. Jove changed himself into an eagle and took Ganymede back to heaven with him. The name Ganymede is thus most often invoked to describe a form of homosexual love between an old man and a young boy. Rosalind's choice of this name becomes important later when Orlando woos her (in the form of Ganymede) as if she were his Rosalind. Celia's choice of name, Aliena, means "the lost one". This name is highly appropriate for her because at the beginning of the play she is indeed the lost one. She is unable to survive without Rosalind, a woman who overshadows Celia throughout the entire play. Celia must therefore lose herself to find herself. Indeed, one of the reasons for banishing Rosalind is to force Celia to become a woman independent of Rosalind. Duke Frederick tells her, "Thou art a fool. She [Rosalind] robs thee of thy name" (1.3.74). He alone seems to realize that the only way for Celia to mature is for her to reject or lose Rosalind. Touchstone is perhaps one of the most interesting characters. His name describes a black mineral used to test the purity of gold and silver, and in much the same way he will test the wit of those he encounters. He also serves as a mirror for the other characters, reflecting their characteristics back on them. Thus when he meets Jaques, he will be described as a fool; when he meets Duke Senior he will be described as a witty man in disguise (5.4.95-96). Each character sees themselves in Touchstone. Rosalind's falling in love with Orlando coincides with her banishment from the court. This is her first step away from the protected life. Like so many of Shakespeare's characters that fall in love, she must risk everything if she wants to pursue her love. For Rosalind this is made easier by the fact that Duke Frederick banishes her. As a young woman she is left without any father or lover to rely on, a novel situation for the time. Rosalind therefore is able to leave security of court and venture into the wilderness, in the end winning Orlando as her future husband. Silence is a dangerous theme that Shakespeare invokes in many of his comedies. It is always a bad sign, signifying miscommunication or plotting. In this play there is the silence of Orlando when he meets Rosalind after the wrestling match, "I cannot speak to her, yet she urged conference" (1.2.225). Rosalind is likewise silent at first, forcing Celia to say, "Why cousin, ...not a word?" (1.3.1-2). Silence must be overcome to have a mature relationship, and this is indeed what happens. It quickly is converted into literary love in the next acts. The play culminates in Orlando risking everything by trusting Ganymede in order to marry Rosalind. In this he is similar to Bassanio in Merchant of Venice, or Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing.
Summary and Analysis of Act 2
Act Two, Scene One Duke Senior, the exiled Duke, is in the forest with his men. He compares the woods to paradise and tells them he is perfectly happy where he is. He asks them if they would like to go and shoot some deer. One of the lords remarks that Jaques, a stock figure who is constantly melancholy, had moralized on the virtue of killing the deer. He tells them that Jaques watched a wounded deer and remarked that they (the men) are usurping the forest from the animals. The Duke asks to be brought to where Jaques is located so he may speak with him. Act Two, Scene Two Duke Frederick has just learned that his daughter and Rosalind escaped during the night. He is furious about their running away. One of the lords informs him that they women were last overheard commenting on how wonderful Orlando is. Duke Frederick orders them to go to Oliver's house and seize Orlando, and if Orlando is absent then to arrest Oliver. Act Two, Scene Three Orlando arrives back at Oliver's house and finds Adam there. Adam warns him that Oliver is plotting to kill him by burning down Orlando's lodgings with Orlando inside during the night. Orlando asks the servant how he is expected to survive if he is thrown out of his house. Adam tells him that he has saved up five hundred crowns during his lifetime that he will give to Orlando provided Orlando takes him along. Orlando agrees to take Adam along with him. Act Two, Scene Four Rosalind and Celia, using the names Ganymede and Aliena, respectively, arrive at the Forest of Ardenne accompanied by Touchstone. Rosalind is dressed as a man and Celia as a shepherdess. They are all tired and complain that they cannot walk any further. Two shepherds, Corin and Silvius, arrive and discuss the fact that Silvius is in love with Phoebe. Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone remain unseen in the background. Corin, an old man, is trying to give Silvius advice but the younger man is claiming that Corin is too old to understand the way he feels. Silvius leaves and Rosalind remarks that she can identify with the way Silvius feels. Touchstone then tells them of some of the foolish things he did when he was previously in love. Rosalind orders Touchstone to approach Corin and ask if he will give them food for some gold. Touchstone calls him a clown, making Rosalind say, "Peace, fool, he's not thy kinsman" (2.4.60). She then goes up to Corin and asks if there is any place where they can get food. Corin informs her that he works for another man and therefore is not allowed to provide hospitality. However, he mentions that the place is for sale and that Silvius was there to consider purchasing the land and flocks. Rosalind immediately offers to buy the land and hire Corin to take care of it with a raise in pay. Corin happily agrees to help them purchase the land. Act Two, Scene Five Amiens is sitting with Jaques and the other lords in the woods and entertaining them with a song. He finishes his song and Jaques asks to hear more. Amiens tells him it will make him melancholy but Jaques persists until he agrees. All of the men join in singing another song. Jaques then performs a verse that he wrote himself. After he finishes his singing, Amiens leaves to find the Duke. Act Two, Scene Six Adam has gotten tired and tells Orlando that he cannot walk any farther into the forest. Orlando promises to find him some food. In the meantime, Orlando carries Adam offstage to find him some shelter. Act Two, Scene Seven Duke Senior, accompanied by other lords, has been looking for Jaques. He is about to send them away to find Jaques when Jaques appears. The Duke comments that Jaques looks positively merry. Jaques tells him, "A fool, a fool, I met a fool i'th' forest, / A motley fool - a miserable world! - As I do live by food, I met a fool" (2.7.12-14). Jaques describes meeting a man who lay on the ground and pulled out his watch. The fool commented that it was ten o'clock, that an hour before it had been nine, and in one hour it would be eleven. Jaques found the man to be so funny that he spent an hour laughing. He finally tells the Duke, "O that I were a fool" (2.7.42). The Duke tells Jaques that he would only insult people if he had the license of a fool (fools were allowed to discuss any matter, even if it offended a noble, without fear of being punished). Jaques claims that he would be witty and that men would only be insulted if they had done something for which they deserved to be insulted. He is interrupted by Orlando who enters with a drawn sword. Orlando rushes in and cries out, "Forbear, and eat no more!" (2.7.88). He orders the men to give him food. The Duke politely bids Orlando to sit down and join them. He is taken aback by the Dukes reply and comments, "Pardon me, I pray you. / I thought that all things had been savage here" (2.7.105-106). Orlando then asks them to wait for him to get Adam so the old man may eat first. The Duke tells him they will not touch any of the food until he returns. Duke Senior remarks that the whole universe "presents more woeful pageants than the scene / Wherein we play in" (137-138). Jaques replies with his famous speech starting: "All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players. And one man in his time plays many parts, His act being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then, a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, ... The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, ... 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. (2.7.138-149,156-157,160-165) After Jaques' speech, Orlando arrives bearing Adam on his shoulders and sets the older man down. Both of them thank the Duke for his hospitality. Amiens then sings a long song for them after which the Duke indicates that he knew Orlando's father quite well. He bids Orlando come to his cave and describe what has happened to him. Adam is helped away by the other lords. Analysis The character of old Adam is one of the most unique. In many ways Adam represents the old world, a world that is no longer in power but that cannot be forgotten. Adam agrees to follow Orlando into the forest, essentially indicating his dissatisfaction with the new world he is living in. When Orlando carries him, it marks a moment similar to Aeneas carrying Anchyses on his back, fleeing from burning Troy. It is thus with reverence that Adam gets treated by all the characters on account of his age and wisdom. The forest of Arden needs to be viewed a projection of the self, an intensifier of oneself. Duke Senior describes his men as being able to: "Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything" (2.1.16-17). This is an image of the goodness of the Duke himself. However, Oliver comes across quite a different version of the forest later on in the play. He encounters snakes and lions, and he himself becomes long-haired and wild looking. Thus Arden appears differently to everyone in it depending on their personalities. In fact, this is quite apparent in 2.6 when we see Adam and Orlando walking around in a savage paradise, hungry for food. This contrasts with the banquet that Duke Senior is laying out for his men. Indeed, Orlando is the savage: "Forbear, and eat no more!" (2.7.88), he cries when he sees the food that Duke Senior has spread out on the ground. Surprised by the civility with which he is greeted, Orlando says, "Pardon me, I pray you. / I thought that all things had been savage here" (2.7.105-106). Orlando thinks he is in a savage place, yet the wilderness is more civilized than he is. The irony is that in this play the bestial man is found in the court, not the country. Jaques is perhaps the premier character for showing how Arden is a projection of the self. Jaques tells Duke Senior, "A fool, a fool, I met a fool i'th' forest, / A motley fool - a miserable world! - As I do live by food, I met a fool" (2.7.12-14). In reality he has met himself in the forest. Arden again is projecting his own attributes. This is further strengthened by the fact that Touchstone is a mirror for other people. Jaques "foolishly" then wishes to become a fool because licensed fools were allowed to say anything without fear of punishment. Shakespeare sets As You Like It in a pastoral setting, but he still mocks the pastoral mode of writing in the process. One of the fundamental aspects of pastoral is that the country people are simple and kindhearted. However, this is not the case when Rosalind and Celia meet Corin for the first time: "But I am a shepherd to another man, / And do not shear the fleeces that I graze. / My master is of churlish disposition, / And little recks to find the way to heaven / By doing deeds of hospitality...there is nothing / That you will feed on" (2.4.73-77,80-81). By denying the women hospitality, Shakespeare mocks the stereotype that rustic people give everything to strangers. A great deal of this play is constructed on paradoxes. Ganymede is really a woman who is in fact is really a male actor (a young boy actually) playing a woman. Even more dramatically, we can state that the Forest of Ardenne has noble savages savaging nobles. Orlando is far more savage than the nobles he finds eating there, in spite of his noble upbringing. These paradoxes not only play with the notion of pastoral but also challenge gender identities. While no one would deny there is a paradox in being both a woman and a man, in Shakespeare's time the issue of gender was much looser than it is in modern society. Woman were considered anatomically identical to men except that the uterus was thought to be inverted male genitals. This view of sex allowed Shakespeare to have Rosalind, as Ganymede, pretend to again be Rosalind. Jaques gives his famous speech in this act, starting with, "All the world's a stage..." (2.7.138). This speech is important because all the characters and stages of life are described in terms of speaking: the lover sighs, the soldier is full of strange oaths, the old man loses his manly voice, and by the final stage the man cannot speak at all having lost everything. Speaking is therefore conceived of in terms of time passing. This vision of time progressing is part of what makes Jaques so melancholy. He views the end as being, "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything" (2.7.165), a sense of loss. However, regardless of what Jaques claims about old age, we have Adam to dismiss what Jaques says. Adam is clearly not without his teeth, eyes, taste or anything else except stamina. This is again Shakespeare at his best, showing the folly of Jaques by presenting Adam as living proof that Jaques is incorrect.
Summary and Analysis of Act 3
Act Three, Scene One Duke Frederick has not been able to find Orlando at Oliver's house. As a result he tells Oliver that he has a year to find his brother and bring him back, either dead or alive. In the interim Duke Frederick seizes all of Oliver's estate and will hold it until Orlando is brought to him. Oliver comments that he never loved his brother. Act Three, Scene Two Orlando enters with a piece of paper on which he has written a sonnet to Rosalind. He says that he will write his love poems on the bark of the trees. Orlando then hangs his sonnet on a tree and leaves it there, commenting, "Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree" (3.2.9). Corin and Touchstone enter. Touchstone tells Corin what he thinks about the shepherd's life and then asks Corin if he was ever at court. Corin tells him "no" and Touchstone then says that Corin is therefore damned. He reasons that if Corin was never in court he never learned good manners, so his manners must be wicked, and if he has wicked manners then he is damned. Corin does his best to protest but cannot win the verbal battle against Touchstone. Rosalind, dressed as Ganymede, enters reading a poem that she has found on a tree. Every other line rhymes with Rosalind and Touchstone mocks it when she is done. He then composes a poem that has the same rhyme structure but insults Rosalind by comparing her either to animals or prostitutes. He then remarks, "Truly, the tree yields bad fruit" (3.2.105). Celia, dressed as Aliena, enters with a poem as well. She proceeds to read it and it turns out to also be addressed to Rosalind. Celia sends away Corin and Touchstone before turning to Rosalind and asking if she knows who is hanging her name on every tree. Rosalind says that she does not and then pleads with Celia to tell her. Celia finally reveals that Orlando is the man leaving all the verses. Orlando and Jaques enter, and the two women hide in order to listen to them. Jaques tells Orlando that he would have been just as happy without his company, and Orlando says the same thing. Orlando then agrees to not mar any more trees with his writing as long as Jaques does not mar the verses by reading them unsympathetically. Jaques tells Orlando that he was seeking a fool when he met him. Orlando quips, "He is drowned in the brook. Look but in, and you shall see him" (3.2.626-263). Jaques gets up and leaves after he realizes that he has been called a fool. Rosalind comes out and speaks to Orlando, asking him what the time is. He tells her there is no time in the forest, but she points out that time moves at different speeds for everyone. She then introduces Celia as a shepherdess and also her sister. Orlando, thinking she is a young man, remarks that she has a superb accent for a rustic man. Rosalind pretends to have had an uncle from the inland who taught her how to speak. Rosalind tells Orlando that a man has been going around the forest ruining the trees by carving the name Rosalind on the them. He admits to being that man and asks if she knows a remedy. She tells him that he is obviously not in love with Rosalind since his cheeks are not lean, nor is he disheveled enough to be in love. Orlando swears that he is in love with Rosalind and asks her if there is a cure. She tells him she once before cured a man of his love by making the man pretend that she was his mistress. After much acting the man went truly man and ended up living a monastic life. Orlando tells her that he does not want to be cured, but Rosalind says that if he pretends she is Rosalind she will do her best to cure him. He agrees to go to her cottage and to start calling her Rosalind. Act Three, Scene Three Touchstone has fallen in love with a goatherd named Audrey. She is a simpleton and does not even know what the word "poetical" means. Touchstone comments on the fact that she is chaste and good looking, but Audrey wishes that she were "foul", obviously thinking that "foul" is a term of praise. Touchstone ignores her nonsense and tells her that he will marry her. Throughout this scene Jaques is in the background watching and making sarcastic comments Sir Oliver Martext, a vicar in the nearby village, arrives to marry them. He asks if there is someone to give away Audrey, telling Touchstone that someone must give her or the marriage is not lawful. Jaques emerges from his hiding place and agrees to give her away. However, before the wedding takes place Jaques asks Touchstone whether an educated man such as himself really wants to be married in the middle of nowhere. After listening to Jaques, Touchstone finally agrees to postpone his marriage and allow Jaques to counsel him. Act Three, Scene Four Rosalind and Celia are waiting for Orlando to arrive. Rosalind gets worried when he does not appear, and Celia tells her that a promise from a lover means nothing. Corin, the old shepherd, enters and tells Rosalind that he has located Silvius and Phoebe. He informs her that she can watch the two lovers together if she comes with him. Rosalind says, "Bring us to this site, and you shall say / I'll prove a busy actor in their play" (3.4.52-53). Act Three, Scene Five Silvius is begging Phoebe to show him some mercy and say that she loves him. She scorns his love and tells him she does not pity him for the pain he feels while loving her. Rosalind emerges from where she was watching their exchange and tells Phoebe that she is rather plain looking. She further informs Silvius that he flatters Phoebe too much for her own good. Turning back to Phoebe, Rosalind says, "down on your knees / And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love; / For I must tell you friendly in your ear, / Sell when you can. You are not for all markets" (3.5.58-61). Phoebe falls in love with Rosalind in spite of her harsh words. Rosalind urges Phoebe to listen to Silvius and scorns her love. However, she does tell Phoebe where to find her house in the forest. Rosalind then leaves with Celia and Corin. Phoebe is so enamored with Rosalind that she finally is able to empathize with Silvius. She agrees to stay and talk about love with him. Phoebe decides to write a love letter to Rosalind (whom she thinks is Ganymede). Silvius agrees to help her. Analysis Orlando, having been seen as the silent lover of Rosalind in the first act, now progresses to the literary stage of love. He mimics the role of a Petrachian lover, a man who writes sonnets to his beloved and adores her beyond compare. Thus, we see Orlando leaving sonnets on the trees and carving Rosalind's name into every trunk. But in a sense he is only a parody of a true Petrarchian lover. After all, Orlando never really sees Rosalind or gets to speak with her, thereby invalidating everything he is writing about her. This excess of emotion is what Rosalind, now in the form of Ganymede, is going to try and stop. She will prefer a mature love that is based on speaking rather than ephemeral notions of womanly virtue. The emotional and literary excess portrayed by Orlando is of course made fun of by Touchstone. He takes advantage of the fact that Rosalind's name is scrawled on every tree to comment, "Truly, the tree yields bad fruit" (3.2.105). Touchstone not only mimics the writing of lover's names on the trees, but once again serves as a mirror by reflecting the fact that the poems are awful. He goes so far as to make up a poem that derides Rosalind rather than praises her, a parody that clearly shows how bad the other poems are. Act two already showed Jaques as a fool after his encounter with Touchstone. Here he is also seen to be a narcissus, a self-absorbed person. Orlando mimics him by telling him to look for the fool in a literal mirror, quipping, "He is drowned in the brook. Look but in, and you shall see him" (3.2.626-263). Jaques is slow to realize that he has been insulted here, a fact that is even more damning to his character. One of the great fears the men have in all of Shakespeare's comedies is being a cuckold.Essentially this is a fear that once married, they will be unable to sexually satisfy their wife, and she will end up sleeping with other men. The primary image of a husband who is duped by his wife is a man wearing a bull's horns. However, underlying this fear is also the necessity of marriage as a social institution. Touchstone put is best, "As horns are odious, they are necessary" (3.3.42). Thus in spite of his intelligence, he will marry the simpleton Audrey. "As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires" (3.3.66-67). For Touchstone this is a necessity in order for him to become a fully mature individual. One of the characteristics of Rosalind is that she is dealing with a play that is primarily created for her pleasure. She therefore becomes the director of the play, managing all of its subplots and influencing the action. She says, "Bring us to this site, and you shall say / I'll prove a busy actor in their play" (3.4.52-53). In this sense Rosalind is like Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She can intervene in others' lives and play games with them. However, at the same time that she is controlling others, Rosalind is still unliberated from Celia. By being a part of the play and directing the actions of the other characters, Rosalind will achieve a liberation from Celia that will allow her to marry Orlando. Much the way Orlando dotes on the unseen Rosalind, the love of Silvius for Phoebe is also a Petrarchian love in excess. Rosalind sees the similarity between the way Silvius and Orlando are acting and tries to cure Orlando of it. She alone realizes that a woman is not worth such an idolization given that women have flaws as well, flaws that the man will have to deal with in marriage. Thus when Phoebe scorns Silvius, Rosalind intelligently points out, "down on your knees / And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love; / For I must tell you friendly in your ear, / Sell when you can. You are not for all markets" (3.5.58-61). This clearly undermines the virtuous deification of women that Silvius and Orlando initially aspire to. Instead, it bluntly lays out the fact that women are human as well and that the man must know both their faults and virtues before actually marrying them. Although it seems obvious that Rosalind is inclined towards Orlando, she still plays with the female-female relationship alluded to in the beginning. Thus when Phoebe falls in love with her she does not completely ignore Phoebe's advances. Instead, Rosalind flirts with Phoebe and tells her where her house is. This is surprising because it contradicts her very words and sets up the homosexual nature of her character. We can never be sure whether Rosalind/Ganymede prefers being a man or a woman as a result of the ambiguous sexuality that she displays. Phoebe herself quickly becomes an inversion of the stereotypical female character. She quotes Marlowe's Hero and Leander and writes poetry with Silvius. This is of course backwards, she as the woman should be wooed with poetry, not forced to write it herself. This inversion of her sexual identity further plays into the homo-eroticism between Rosalind and Phoebe that may underline the plot.
Summary and Analysis of Act 4
Act Four, Scene One Rosalind, dressed as Ganymede, meets with Jaques for the first time. He explains that he prefers to be melancholy because he has seen the world and his ruminations on what he has seen make him sad. Rosalind tells him that she prefers a fool to keep her merry than experience (from traveling) to make her sad. Orlando arrives and Rosalind says goodbye to Jaques. Orlando approaches her and calls her Rosalind. She chides him for being an hour late and accuses him of not really being in love. Rosalind finally tells Orlando that she is in a good enough humor to allow him to woo her. He tells her he would rather kiss her than speak to her, but she asks Orlando what he would do if she refused. He claims he would die of love. Rosalind laughs at his naivete and tells him no man has ever died of love since the earth began. Orlando finally asks her if she will love him. Rosalind says she will and asks her sister Celia (still disguised as Aliena) to pretend to marry them. Orlando takes her hand and they perform a mock wedding ceremony. Rosalind then asks him how long he plans to love her. Orlando claims "for ever and a day" (4.1.123). Rosalind replies, "men are April when they woo, December when they wed" (4.1.124-125). She then gives Orlando a lecture about the way that women really act once they are married. Orlando is forced to leave her and meet the Duke for dinner, but he promises to return that afternoon. She warns him not to be late this time or she will consider him unworthy to call her Rosalind and pretend she is his lover. After Orlando departs, Celia tells Rosalind that she has slandered the entire female sex the way she is treating Orlando. Rosalind laughs and admits that she is deeply in love with him but cannot yet reveal who she is. Act Four, Scene Two One of the Duke's lords has just killed a deer. Jaques, opposed to killing animals (see Act Two), tells the men present that they should present it to the Duke. He then makes the lords sing a hunting song which describes them wearing the deer's horns, a sign of cuckoldry. Act Four, Scene Three Rosalind is waiting for Orlando to meet her but he is late again. Silvius instead arrives and hands her a letter that he claims Phoebe wrote. He denies knowing what the letter says other than that its tone is angry, but Rosalind does not believe him. Finally she takes out the letter and reads it in front of Silvius. The letter is a love poem and does not chide her in the least. Instead Phoebe declares her love for Rosalind. Silvius is taken aback by the contents of the letter. Rosalind, feeling sorry for him, sends him back to Phoebe with the message that Phoebe must love Silvius or she (Rosalind) will never love Phoebe. Oliver, Orlando's older brother, shows up and asks if the women can tell him how to get to Rosalind's house. He is still searching for Orlando whom Duke Frederick ordered him to bring back to court. He asks if they are the owners, and Celia admits that they are. Oliver then presents Rosalind, whom he thinks is a man, with a bloody handkerchief that Orlando asked him to give. Oliver tells Rosalind that while he was asleep in the forest, Orlando happened to come across him sleeping under an oak tree. A large green snake had curled herself around Oliver's neck and was about to enter into his open mouth. When Orlando arrived it uncurled itself and crept into some bushes. Under those bushes a lioness lay waiting, her udders nursed dry, thereby making her ferociously hungry. Orlando, having seen all this, approached his older brother. Orlando almost left his brother sleeping there but instead chose to battle the lioness and kill her. Oliver woke up at the noise of Orlando fighting and realized that his brother had saved his life. He immediately regretted ever trying to kill Orlando. Orlando took Oliver to the Duke's cave and made sure his brother received hospitality. Orlando then fainted from loss of blood and Oliver had to bind up his brother's arm. Once Orlando woke up again, he asked Oliver to take the handkerchief to Rosalind and tell her the story. Rosalind faints once Oliver presents her with the handkerchief. Celia calls Rosalind, "Ganymede, sweet Ganymede!" until she wakes up. Oliver tells Rosalind that she does not have a man's heart. She admits as much, but asks him to tell Orlando that she faked fainting. Oliver says that it was too real to have been faked and tells her to fake being a man a little more. He finally leaves her to return to Orlando and tell him how she reacted to the story. Analysis One of the great problems for all the characters in As You Like It is the fact that they need to have sustainable happy marriages. Rosalind points out the problem when she tells Orlando that, "men are April when they woo, December when they wed" (4.1.124-125). This issue of sustaining the fervor with which the married couple loves one another is crucially tied up with the ability to know the virtues and faults of the other person ahead of time. Thus Rosalind takes the time to make Orlando bond with Ganymede. This serves as a way to break his silence towards Rosalind. Not only is the silence gotten rid of, but Rosalind is able to profit from the excesses of the other lovers such as Silvius and Phoebe. Having seen their romantic excess, Rosalind will work to cure Orlando of the same problem. Part of the underlying themes in the play focus on the danger and attraction of the female. This is more apparent than ever before when Orlando comes across Oliver with a female snake around his neck, about to enter his mouth. Having frightened the snake away, Orlando must next fight a female lioness and spill his own blood in the process of defeating it. Only once the female animals have been beaten back can Oliver and Orlando be reunited as brothers. Indeed, this entire scene may indicate the real reason that Orlando was forced to flee from Oliver's house. It is likely that Oliver was jealous of Orlando, who is obviously stronger (evidenced by his choking of Oliver in the first act). This jealousy could be bound up in the issue of marriage, meaning that Oliver was afraid Orlando would be able to marry into a higher social class and thereby achieve dominance over his brother.
Summary and Analysis of Act 5
Act Five, Scene One Touchstone and Audrey are still together. Audrey is anxious to get married and Touchstone promises they will soon find someone who can perform the ceremony. He then asks her about another man who claims her. Before Audrey can speak the other man, named William, enters. He is a polite man who is in love with Audrey. After being polite for a short while, Touchstone orders him to leave Audrey and allow her to marry him instead. He threatens to kill William if he should try to approach Audrey again. William leaves and Corin arrives and tells them that Rosalind orders them to come to her. Act Five, Scene Two Oliver has fallen in love with Celia at first site. Orlando is amazed by this, asking his brother, "Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you should like her?" (5.2.1-2). Oliver is so excited that he even promises to give Orlando all of his estate so that he may remain in the country with Celia (whom he thinks is Aliena). Oliver further announces that he plans to get married the next day. Orlando consents to the marriage but feels heavy hearted because he misses Rosalind. She arrives, still pretending to be Ganymede, and Oliver leaves in order to allow his brother to speak with her. They both remark on how fast Celia and Oliver fell in love, but Orlando comments, "I, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes" (5.2.38-39). He complains that in spite of his brother's happiness, he will be depressed the next day during the wedding because he wants to be with Rosalind. Rosalind asks him, "tomorrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?" (5.2.43-44). In a turning point in the play, Orlando tells her, "I can live no longer by thinking" (5.2.45). Rosalind tells Orlando that she can perform seemingly magical things. She promises that if he consents, she will arrange it so that he can marry Rosalind the next day at the same time Oliver and Celia get married. Silvius and Phoebe arrive together. Phoebe is still in love with Ganymede (Rosalind) and Silvius still loves Phoebe. Rosalind tells Phoebe to look at Silvius and love him instead. Phoebe turns to Silvius and asks him to inform Rosalind of what it is like to love. He replies, "It is to be all made of sighs and tears" (5.2.74). All of the various lovers agree with him, naming the person they love. Rosalind finally gets fed up with the nonsense and emotional excess around her. She turns to each of them and orders them to show up tomorrow, promising that she will make sure they all get married. Act Five, Scene Three Touchstone and Audrey are commenting on how wonderful the next day will be when they get married. Two of Duke Senior's pages arrive and Touchstone asks them to sing a song for him. They do, after which he gets up and comments that it was a waste of time to listen to such a foolish song. Act Five, Scene Four Duke Senior is gathered with all of his men, Orlando, Oliver and Celia. The Duke asks Orlando whether he believes Ganymede will be able to do everything he said he would. Orlando tells him he can only hope it is true. Rosalind arrives with Phoebe and Silvius. She then asks the Duke if he will marry his daughter Rosalind to Orlando if she can make Rosalind appear. He agrees that he will. Orlando further agrees to marry Rosalind if she shows up. Phoebe has meanwhile promised that she will marry Ganymede, but that if she should refuse to marry Ganymede then she will accept Silvius as her husband. Rosalind and Celia then disappear in order to change their appearances. Touchstone and Audrey arrive, and Jaques remarks, "There is sure another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark" (5.4.35-36). Touchstone then discourses on the proper etiquette about challenging someone to a duel. He makes fun of the procedures, naming seven degrees of accusing someone of lying before a duel must be fought. Touchstone finishes his discourse by explaining how using the word "if" can settle all disputes. Once Touchstone is finished, Hymen, the god of marriage, enters with Rosalind and Celia. Hymen rhymes every line and gets all four couples to join together. They are all married at once. Jaques De Bois, the middle brother of Orlando and Oliver, shows up to inform them that Duke Frederick had gathered an army and planned to round up all the men in the forest. However, on the way there he met a religious man and was converted. Duke Frederick resigned his crown and returned it to Duke Senior, choosing instead to join a monastery. Jaques, the melancholy character, decides to leave the woods and spend time with the newly converted Duke. Orlando becomes the heir to the entire Dukedom as a result of his marriage to Rosalind. Act Five, Epilogue Rosalind performs the Epilogue and tells the audience that she hopes they enjoyed the play. She then makes a pointed reference to the fact that "If [she] were a woman" (5.Epilogue.14-15) she would kiss the men present. This reference to the fact that a male is playing her role is unusual. Rosalind ends the play with a curtsy and bids the audience farewell. Analysis The brutishness of the court when transplanted into the countryside is again made apparent in the final act. Touchstone sends William away from Audrey and threatens his life. This is an inversion of the stereotype that brutality comes in from the country, not the other way around. William is even excessively polite in spite of the threats that Touchstone makes toward him, undermining the necessity of the threats in the first place.. The true turning point for Orlando and Rosalind is when Oliver and Celia fall in love. The reason is that Celia now leaves Rosalind and shifts her focus onto Oliver. The love at first site of Oliver and Celia even causes Orlando to exclaim, "I, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes" (5.2.38-39). Rosalind asks him, "tomorrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?" (5.2.43-44). Orlando tells her, "I can live no longer by thinking" (5.2.45). This last line marks the true turning point. Orlando can no longer live by thinking, by imagining that Ganymede is his Rosalind. He instead is ready to have the real Rosalind for his wife and therefore refuses to play the game with Ganymede. Understanding this, Rosalind immediately promises to arrange for Orlando to marry her the next day. One of the most unusual scenes is where Silvius, Phoebe and Orlando tells Rosalind what it is like to be in love. Silvius describes it as, "It is to be all made of sighs and tears" (5.2.74). This is again the overdone love that Rosalind avoids, she is too wise for this excess. However, Orlando is not yet past this point. He willingly mimics the other two by inserting Rosalind's name after each phrase. Rosalind eventually gets fed up with this entire production and orders them to stop. Shakespeare pokes a great deal of fun at the institution of marriage at the very end. He introduces the character of Hymen, the god of marriage, into what has turned into four marriages. Jaques alone seems to realize how funny and pathetic this is, "There is sure another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark" (5.4.35-36). He sees the scene for what it is, a ceremony in which the characters are herded, two by two, into the ark of marriage. A strong theme that emerges at the end is the language of wanting. In fact, this theme has always been present, but never to such a blatant degree. The title itself suggest the act of wanting, "As You Like It". Touchstone is the character who makes it obvious in his speech about lying and dueling. He indicates the many uses of "if" to avoid a duel, stating that "Your if is the only peacemaker" (5.4.91). The "if" represents the possibilities that are inherent in each situation, "if I bring...you will bestow" (5.4.6-7), "you'll marry me if I be willing?" (5.4.11), "you'll have Phoebe if she will" (5.4.16). Each of these "ifs" indicates another possible outcome to the play, a different path other than the one that is eventually chosen. The Epilogue is unique because it is done by Rosalind in her woman's clothes. This makes As You Like It the only Elizabethan play known where a woman ends the play. Rosalind thus goes from a woman to a man, and reemerges as Rosalind for her wedding. However, to confuse the plot even more, Shakespeare makes her point out the fact that she is only a male playing a female role, "If I were a woman" (5.Epilogue.14-15). This breaking down of the sexual boundaries results in forcing the audience to confront their own sexuality and to question whether it is as absolute as assumed. As usual in a Shakespearian comedy there are excluded characters at the end, namely Jaques and Adam. However, this ending is inclusionary. Rosalind mentions all the men and women present, thereby breaking down the barrier between the stage and the audience. Where the play at first excluded Jaques, Adam and Orlando's father, they are now all included again. This serves to further draw the audience into the play and make the themes present more a part of everyday life rather than an anomaly seen on stage.
ClassicNote on As You Like It
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