In Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” incorporates two different settings that take place, in the beginning of the play, the setting takes place in the court and the other takes place in the country, two completely different cultures. The court symbolizes a culture that is full of narcissism, conflict, bitterness, and egotism, creating chaos in everyone’s mind. Everyone in the court seems to be looking out for one’s own agenda and not for the other man. The country symbolizes a place that is mysterious, yet simple and peaceful. It is a place that one can escape from the horrible immoralities of the court life. The country enables the characters to clear their minds of all the ugliness of the court and answers to the heart. By the end of the play, all of the characters who enter the “Forest of Arden” come out renewed and have a clear understanding of where their heart should be. At the start of the play, the court lacks respect for the fellow man, for example, Duke Oliver, calls one of his faithful servants an “old dog,” inquiring that his servant is nothing but an old warn out servant. The court seems to be filled with hostility and maliciousness, for example, when Orlando won the wrestling match against Charles, he was denied the usual honor that the court gives to the winner but because Orlando’s deceased father used to be an enemy to one of the dukes who at the time was watching the fight, decided not to honor Orlando’s win because of an old grudge against his deceased father. The Duke, Frederick, saying, “I would thou hadst been son to some man else. The world esteemed thy father honorable, But I did find him still mine enemy. Thou shouldst have better pleased me with this deed Hadst thou descended from another house. Bu... ... middle of paper ... ...ike it” some of the characters go through a transformation from chaos and hostility to peace and honesty. Only until they migrate from the tumultuous court to the unknown and serene forest will they truly know what life should be like. The characters who entered the “Forest of Arden” feel uneasy at the forest’s mystifying looks and silence. They find the forest threatening and inhospitable, and wish to be back to the chaos of the court. Finally, they continue to allow the country’s forest to purify their minds and allow peace and truth to flow through to their hearts, even the most hardened of hearts, Duke Olivier says, “It shall be to your good, for my father’s house and all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland’s will I estate upon you, and here live and die a shepherd.” Implying that he would spend the rest of his life in the peaceful forest, as a simple shepherd.
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the audience witnesses a great amount of familial pride when Tybalt shouts to an opposing family member, “What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward,” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 1.1 pg 12). In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare depicts two feuding families who once had a legitimate reason to be mad at one another, but now continuously fight each other fueled purely by family pride. This everlasting conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets illustrate to the audience how having too much family pride places a restriction on familial unity.
Morality: mercy wins over justice, and yet there is a strong sense of justice having been done. Symbolically accomplished by the Duke (justice) taking on the habit of "a true friar" (mercy but with sense of justice) starting with I.iii.48.
At the start of the play, the reader sees that Prince Hal has been acting in a manner which has disappointed his father. The King compares Hotspur to Hal, saying that Hotspur is ìA son who is the theme of honour's tongue,î and that ìriot and dishonour stain the brow of [Hal] (I.i.3).î He even wishes that the two were switched: ìThen would I have his Harry, and he mine (I.i.3).î The King obviously does not approve of Hal's actions, and believes that, if Hal does not change his ways, he will be a poor successor to the throne.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It loyalty is dominant theme. Each character possesses either a loyalty or disloyalty towards another. These disloyalties and loyalties are most apparent in the relationships of Celia and Rosalind, Celia and Duke Fredrick, Orlando and Rosalind, Adam and Orlando, and Oliver and Orlando. In these relationships, a conflict of loyalties causes characters to change homes, jobs, identities and families.
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.
It is easy enough to discount the presence of conflict within As You Like It, swept away as we are by the sparkling wit of the play, its numerous songs, and the use of stage spectacle (such as the masque of Hymen). But precisely what enables Arden to have such a profound effect on the visitors (Rosalind, Orlando, Duke Senior et al.) is the fact that it is a retreat from the "painted pomp" of the "envious court". The twisted morality of the court, where Duke Frederick hates Rosalind for her virtue, is very much necessary for the purpose of the drama of the play; it is only through the disparity between the court and the Forest of Arden that there is dramatic significance in the movement to Arden and the play of Arden. So while the world of As You Like It is one of reduced intensity (even while the cynic Jacques is loved by the Duke Senior, who loves to "cope him in his sullen fits"), it would be too glib to dismiss conflict from the play.
It is the innate desire of man to seek a place of freedom, .an utopia, which allows him to escape into fantasies and away from the hardships of reality. In the play 'As you like it'; by William Shakespeare, the playwright indirectly compares the Forest of Arden to the Forest of Eden by exploring the theme of illusions, the idea of the forest as a place of refuge and Arden's mystical powers.
It shows the audience how effortlessly the justice system could be corrupted back then. In the play Much Ado About Nothing, the writer, Shakespeare, also addresses the topic of the justice system being corrupted. Which shows us how Aristophanes unknowingly, influenced the Elizabethan era again. Shakespeare also uses humour to show the audience that the justice is corrupted by using a stock buffoon/bomolochus character. In this play, the bomolochus character is seen in the sheriff, Dogberry. In Act IV, Scene II, two criminals are on trial and are being questioned by Dogberry who asks them, “Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves?” To which they reply “Marry, sir, we say we are none.” Ultimately, Dogberry is shown to be stupid enough to believe that the criminals aren’t guilty because their stories match up. At which point, he tells the judge, “Well, stand
From the beginning of the play the Duke shows his fascination with the art of disguise. He has Lord Angelo takes his place and he in turn becomes a friar in disguise. Throughout the play this notion of false identity and exchange of identity plays an important role for the Duke and also for the characters in the play.
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.
As You Like It starts out in the court, where Rosalind in a female dressed as a female, and Orlando is a male dressed as a male. Rosalind is being treated like a woman and she clearly acts like one. She attends the wrestling match, where her uncle, Duke Frederick, asks her and Celia, her cousin, to try on talk Orlando out of participating in the match. This is the point when Rosalind and Orlando meet, coerce, and begin having feelings for each other. Orlando does in fact defeat Charles, the Duke's wrestler. In this situation, Rosalind is portraying a female with typical female characteristics and Orlando is carrying out his male characteristics. In the court, they are in there true societal roles, but once they enter the forest of Ardenne those roles are dramatically changed.
At one point Jaques analyses what it is to be a man (II,vii, 60-166). He sees the world as a stage wherein men and women are players, and their different ages represent different acts and scenes in the play. His descriptions suggest that the roles are largely beyond the players` control; that a script for the play has already been written by an exterior force. But there is a sense of contradiction in all this; the stages Jaques outlines for us (presented to his audience as universal) do not account for his own role. Since this is the case we must either presume that Jacques is somehow exceptional or that the roles are not as fixed as people imagine. One can always argue that Jaques is an outcast of some sort. On the other hand, the Duke Senior is eager to offer him a position at court, thereby giving him an opportunity to obtain an acceptable role within the framework of a hierarchical, society, but Jaques turns down the offer. He needs to widen his horizon, and is so impatient about learning more that he does not even stay to celebrate with the rest of the uke`s men."To see no pastime, I." (V,iv,194). Instead he wants to go to Duke Frederick: "Out of these convertites,/ There is much matter to be hear`d and learn`d" (V,iv,183-184).
The epiphany of this however, is realized at the end of the play. Nearly every scene in the play, either intentionally or unintentionally, portrays a struggling relationship between a figure that possesses power and a figure that is suppressed by that power. The play explores the relationship between master and servant very dynamically. In the opening scene, the boatswain (servant) is very oppressive towards the noble men (master) due to their sophomoric attitude in a dangerous situation like that. This is especially visible when Antonio, the usurping Duke of Milan, asks the boatswain where the master is, to this, the boatswain replies, “Do you not hear him?
The play appears with the Duke handing over his powers to Angelo and Escalus, chiefly to Angelo whose austere and honourable deed is known to all Vienna. The Duke does it in one of those philosophic and moral speeches in his fashion, the less do we think him fit to be ruler of man. He is a thinker, not a man of action; a philosopher in a wrong place. Therefore, he urges Angelo to make full use of his virtue and assumes the disguise of a friar to spy upon his hedonistic subjects and upon Angelo.