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"As You Like It"
19
Transcript
William Shakespeare's
'As You Like It'
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world.
The Duke Senior, along with his lords and merry men, is cast from court into the garden of Ardenne by his younger brother, Duke Frederick. Their daughters, Rosalind (who gets banished also) , and Celia, loving cousins, who can not bear to be apart disguise themselves as a man, Ganymeade, and a servant, Aliena. They leave for the forest with Touchstone (the fool).
Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger.
My pride fell with my fortunes.
CAST of CHARACTERS
Duke Senior
Duke Frederick
Jaques
Oliver
Orlando
Touchstone
Rosalind
Celia
Phebe
Audrey
Well said: that was laid on with a trowel.
Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger.
Brothers, Orlando, who has fallen for Rosalind, and Oliver, argue and plot, one for love, the other for trouble. They, too, go to the forest, where there is predictable confusion over who is who, and who loves who. And in the end......
All the World's
a Stage
I pray you, do not fall in love with me,
For I am falser than vows made in wine.
Characters and Plot
Ganymede, (Rosalind), discusses the lessons of love while trying to test Orlando's true love. All is solved when the couples are joined in marriage by the the goddess Hymen.
Themes and Historical Significance
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
Themes
The play, first performed in the early 1600's is set in a "duchy in France, but most of the action is set in a location called the Forest of Arden. Setting could be a forest close to Shakespeare's home town of Stratford or a setting in Belgium.
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother;
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother.
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
Romance
Theme of Injustice
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 schoolboy, 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 slippered 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 towards 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.
- "As You Like It" is a Classical New Comedy
The taking of Property by the
Duke's Brother.
-Love as disease
Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.
Oh! how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.
Pastoral
Themes of Gender
-Female Independence vs.Patriarchy
Court Vs. Country
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot:
And thereby hangs a tale.
Historical Significance
I met a fool i’ the forest,
A motley fool.
Linguistic Style
Bearded like the pard – with tufts of facial hair like the whiskers of a leopard or panther
Cannon – laws against dueling
Capon – emasculated cock
Hose – leggings
Pantaloons – the ridiculous old merchant
Sans – without
Shank – calf
Pastoral
"As You Like it" was probably written between 1599 and 1600. Critics disagree about the importance of this play, but it has been widely enjoyed in theater, on radio, and in films.
Reality of Country Life
Condition of the Country
Social Stress