As You Like It
Shakespeare: Background to the play
1599 - Transitional moment in the country, Elizabeth had been on the throne for a long time and the monarch was enormously powerful which meant that people were anxious as to who would be their new ruler
Comedy - Shakespeare started off in comedy, then when he was middle aged went back to tragedy and towards the end of his life, he went back to comedy
AYLI was set in a feudal society with realms, no cities, but there were urban gatherings, private armies and they taxed the people with the rich who just sit gathering their wealth
Comedy - Shakespeare started off in comedy, then when he was middle aged went back to tragedy and towards the end of his life, he went back to comedy
AYLI was set in a feudal society with realms, no cities, but there were urban gatherings, private armies and they taxed the people with the rich who just sit gathering their wealth
Themes in the novel
Pastoral Romance/Elizabethan Romance:
- A knight falls in love with a woman and there is a quest to prove himself worthy of the woman
- Heavily involves stereotypes
- Unoriginal and cliche
- Investigates Courtly Love
The law of primogeniture:
The older brother is the head of the family once the father dies and gets all of the inheritance and is the one to sort out the will
Two sets of warring brothers
The older brother is the head of the family once the father dies and gets all of the inheritance and is the one to sort out the will
- Novel explores the idea when this is not followed correctly -
- Oliver does not give Orlando (his younger brother) the inheritance that had been left for him in his will
- Duke Frederick takes the throne from his older brother and upsets the natural order of things
Two sets of warring brothers
Conflict and Revenge:
Oliver is jealous of Orlando
Oliver has been shamed by Orlando in front of Adam (their inferior)
Oliver is jealous of Orlando
Oliver has been shamed by Orlando in front of Adam (their inferior)
Exposition
- Orlando's speech starts in media res
- Explains the situation between the Dukes in the conversation between Charles and Oliver
- Classical allusion - refer to something in a previous era (classical Greece)
2006 As You Like It movie adaption
Part 1 |
Part 2 |
Comedy
As You Like It is not only a pastoral play, but a comedy - as it follows the same conventions as all Shakespearian comedies:
Structure-
Northrope Fry's critical analysis
Structure-
- Exposition (sets up the plot line and prepares the audience for what will happen e.g. The sibling feuds in Act 1)
- Complication (characters face a problem, often involves disguise and new locations e.g. Rosalind is banished from the court, Oliver is trying to kill Orlando and they all run away to the forest of Arden)
- Resolution (ends in celebration and the disorder is solved e.g. the four marriages and everyone - but Jaques - goes back to court)
Northrope Fry's critical analysis
- Old World (e.g. the 'envious court' with all the 'painted pomp' and 'flattery')
- Green World (e.g. where the 'trees are greener' and they're 'free' having moved to 'liberty and not to banishment')
- New World (e.g. where the people return to the court with new values and ideals)
AO2 and notes
Starts in media res: Orlando's speech
Prose: Orlando - not serious, its a comedy, Orlando and Rosalind speaking as Ganymede
Foreshadowing: "she would have followed her into exile"
Rhyming couplets: At the end of each acts
Alternate rhyme scheme: Orlando's letter
Iambic Pentameter:
Dramatic Irony: All of Oliver's traits are said by Oliver when he is describing Orlando
Parallel Phrase: "your gentleness shall force more than your force move us to gentleness"
Classical Allusion: Orlando's love verses
Triadic Structure: "the fair, the chaste, the unexpressive she"
Break frame: "you speak in blank verse", Rosalind when she addressed the audience at the end
Metaphors:
Hyperbole: Orlando's letters "In mine own person I die"
Dichotomy:
Stock characters: Silvius and Corin
Negative animal imagery: "stalling of an ox"
Biblical imagery: "truly the tree yields bad fruit"
Personification: Fortune and Nature
Prose: Orlando - not serious, its a comedy, Orlando and Rosalind speaking as Ganymede
Foreshadowing: "she would have followed her into exile"
Rhyming couplets: At the end of each acts
- Thee & Loyalty
- Forescore & More
- Seek & Week
Alternate rhyme scheme: Orlando's letter
Iambic Pentameter:
- Duke Senior's speech Act 2
- Orlando's romantic verses
- Corin speaking of Silvius
Dramatic Irony: All of Oliver's traits are said by Oliver when he is describing Orlando
Parallel Phrase: "your gentleness shall force more than your force move us to gentleness"
Classical Allusion: Orlando's love verses
Triadic Structure: "the fair, the chaste, the unexpressive she"
Break frame: "you speak in blank verse", Rosalind when she addressed the audience at the end
Metaphors:
- "those burs are in my heart"
- Rosalind speaking of women's wit trying to escape the constraints of the domestic sphere
Hyperbole: Orlando's letters "In mine own person I die"
Dichotomy:
- loyalty vs. betrayal
- tolerance vs. envy
- forest vs. court
Stock characters: Silvius and Corin
Negative animal imagery: "stalling of an ox"
Biblical imagery: "truly the tree yields bad fruit"
Personification: Fortune and Nature
Quizzes
Shmoop Quiz: Who said what
Shmoop Quiz: Themes
Shmoop Quiz: Symbols
BookRags Quiz (have to register to take this quiz)