Sexuality in As You Like It
In a romantic forest setting, rich with the songs of birds, the fragrance of fresh spring flowers, and the leafy hum of trees whistling in the wind, one young man courts another. A lady clings to her childhood friend with a desperate and erotic passion, and a girl is instantly captivated by a youth whose physical features are uncannily feminine. Oddly enough, the object of desire in each of these instances is the same person. In As You Like It, William Shakespeare explores the homoerotic possibilities of his many characters. At the resolution he establishes a tenuous re-affirmation of their heterosexuality. In this essay I will show how individual characters flirt with their homoerotic inclinations, and finally reject these impulses in favor of the traditional and socially accepted heterosexual lifestyle. I will explore male to male eroticism through the all-male court in the forest and through Orlando's attraction to Ganymede. I will inspect female to female attraction through Celia's attachment to Rosalind and through Phebe's instant attraction to the effeminate boy, Ganymede.
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In Duke Senior's forest retreat, Shakespeare creates a setting ripe with homoerotic potential. In the first lines Duke Senior speaks he rejoices in the 'sweetness' of the woodland life. 'Now my co-mates and brothers in exile, / Hath not old custom made this life more sweet/ Than that of painted pomp' (II.i.1-3). He clearly considers this woodland lifestyle more pleasant than that of the court. One of the primary distinguishing factors between the court and the forest is the absence of women. Despite the fact that the members of Duke Senior's court have been without women for a long while, through...
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...esires and affections. In the end, however, he bows to social convention, reigns in his characters' wandering or errant lusts and loves and tethers each of them down to a pleasant, if tenuous, life of heterosexuality.
WORKS CITED
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DiGangi, Mario. 'Queering the Shakespearean Family.' Shakespeare Quarterly 47 (Fall 1996): 269-290.
Shakespeare, William. 'As You Like It.' The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1997. 1600-1656.
The Bible. King James Version.
WORKS CONSULTED
Barroll, Leeds, et al., eds. Shakespeare Studies. London: Associated UP, 1998.
Charney, Maurice. All of Shakespeare. New York: Columbia UP, 1993.
Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398. Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations.”
Imagine being a woman in sixteenth century Europe. Females were raised to believe that they were subservient and that men knew better on any subject. Basically, women had no rights. They were considered property, first “owned” by their fathers and then control was “transferred” to the husband chosen for them. Marriage was not about love, but in most cases, it was a business deal that was mutually beneficial to both families – an interesting fact is that like young women, most young men had no choice in the selection of their future betrothed. These traditions and the gender roles assumed by men and women at that time had an impact on Shakespeare’s writing and performances and a great example of this is evident in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
One of the foremost not-so-shocking consequences that have unusually become a trend in today’s society as a result of the events of September 11th is the issue of racial profiling. Racial profiling is the unjust method used by certain police officials to gather suspects for a variety of crimes; it is used to target certain individuals based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion (“Racial Profiling”). Citizens and authorities alike have developed an attitude towards people from the Middle East. When a person sees a Middle Eastern male enter a plane before it takes flight, people usually began to feel extreme paranoia. Since we are assuming that the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001 were both done by the same nationality, citizens have established the mindset that all Middle Eastern individuals are inevitably terrorists. It is true that both masterminds for each of the attacks were of Middle Eastern descent. However, the paranoia is not rational; it is only rooted in an irrational fear birthed out of ignorance. The only conclusion th...
Kemp, Theresa D. Women in the Age of Shakespeare. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2009. Print.
In recent years, racial profiling by law enforcement has been a progressively divisive issue in the United States. Racial profiling by law enforcement refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity as a fundamental reason to stop, search, interrogate and, or arrest an individual. Although, racial profiling is illegal and violates the constitution core declaration of equal protection of the law and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, police and law enforcement agents still use racial profiling as a law enforcement tool. Thus, throughout this paper, the researcher will expound on racial profiling in three manners: towards African Americans(Blacks), towards Arab/Middle Eastern individuals after 9/11, and towards legal immigrants,
Shakespeare's As You Like It is a good play for anyone to read or see. Some readers would enjoy one aspect of it, some would enjoy another. But all would, in general, enjoy the play. Albert Gilman says that Shakespeare intended to imply that all that people need to live together in harmony is "good sense, love, humor, and a generous disposition." (Gilman lxvii) This play is deeper than the surface, and that is part of its appeal to every kind of person.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a disease that a lot of people suffer with in society especially young adults. While it is not a disease that is deadly, it does affect the victim in every day aspects of their life and can ultimately control their lives. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as, “… a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over”. The thoughts that individuals have when suffering through Obsessive Compulsive Disorder cannot be restrained and really can disturb the individual. Thoughts or actions that people may have can range from worrying about daily occurrences, such as washing their hands, to having thoughts of harming people that are close to them. People tend to have these reoccurring compulsions because they believe by doing them or thinking them, they will either prevent something bad from happening or because it eliminates stress that they have. This disease can last a lifetime and can be very detrimental and disabling to how one lives their lives. Individuals can start to see signs of OCD in either late adolescence or even early adulthood and everyone is susceptible. When it comes to classifying this incurable disease, there is much debate on whether or not it a type of anxiety (Abramowitz, Taylor, & McKay, 2009). It is important to be able to understand this mental disorder since so many people are diagnosed with it. While there are treatments for OCD, there are no cures yet. Treatments could range anywhere from taking prescribed medication to just going to therapy and counseling fo...
The feminism of Shakespeare’s time is still largely unrecognized. Drama from the 1590’s to the mid-1600’s is feminist in sympathy. The author
One of the most intriguing aspects of the treatment of love in As You Like It concerns the issue of gender. And this issue, for obvious reasons, has generated a special interest in recent times. The principal reason for such a thematic concern in the play is the cross dressing and role playing. The central love interest between Rosalind and Orlando calls into question the conventional wisdom about men's and women's gender roles and challenges our preconceptions about these roles in courtship, erotic love, and beyond.
Love is the central theme in the play ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare, the author expressed many types of love in the play. Some of them are, brotherly love, lust for love, loyal, friendship love, unrequited love, but of course, romantic love is the focus of this play.
During the Elizabethan era, women were supposed to be typical housewives and mothers that bore children every two years (Thomas). In contrast, although Shakespeare’s women knew their place, they were intelligent and surprisingly strong willed.
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night revolves around a love triangle that continually makes twists and turns like a rollercoaster, throwing emotions here and there. The characters love each another, but the common love is absent throughout the play. Then, another character enters the scene and not only confuses everyone, bringing with him chaos that presents many different themes throughout the play. Along, with the emotional turmoil, each character has their own issues and difficulties that they must take care of, but that also affect other characters at same time. Richard Henze refers to the play as a “vindication of romance, a depreciation of romance…a ‘subtle portrayal of the psychology of love,’ a play about ‘unrequital in love’…a moral comedy about the surfeiting of the appetite…” (Henze 4) On the other hand, L. G. Salingar questions all of the remarks about Twelfth Night, asking if the remarks about the play are actually true. Shakespeare touches on the theme of love, but emphases the pain and suffering it causes a person, showing a dark and dismal side to a usually happy thought.
Many characters undergo a change in William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It”. Duke Senior goes from being a member of a court to being a member of a forest and Orlando changes from a bitter, younger brother, to a love-struck young man. The most obvious transformation undergone, is undoubtedly that of Rosalind. Her change from a woman to a man, not only alters her mood, candor, and gender, but also allows her to be the master of ceremonies.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Comp. Folger Shakespeare Library. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
Schleiner, Louise.Voice, Ideology, and Gendered Subjects: The Case of As You Like It and Two Gentlemen.Shakespeare Quarterly 50, no.3 (1999 Fall) p. 285-309.