The Importance of Family Relationships in As You Like It by William Shakespeare
‘As You Like It’ depends largely on the portrayal of relationships for
an array of purposes; the relationships provide comedy for the
audience, and induce empathy and various other emotions. There are
many family relationships in ‘As You Like It’, varying from parent and
child bonds to husband and wife commitments – there are many new such
commitments at the end of the play.
Firstly, I shall discuss the importance of the father-daughter
relationships between Duke Senior and Rosalind, and Duke Frederick and
Celia. The second scene of the play details Rosalind mourning her
banished father, which makes the audience realise the caring qualities
in her nature:
“Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not
learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.”
However, her loss is soon forgotten when she meets Orlando. This
represents that young adults are attached to their parents to a
certain extent, but are often forgotten when other interests come into
play, for example love interests. Critics could argue that this
suggests that this family relationship is not particularly important
in ‘As You Like It’. However, this relationship allows the play to
progress, when Rosalind and Celia set out into the Forest of Arden to
search for Duke Senior. In addition, Rosalind only finds true
happiness with Orlando once she has found her father again, so it
seems that her happiness in love is dependent on her contentment with
her family relationships. Therefore, I personally think that this
conveys the importance of their relationship in ‘As You Like It’.
The relationship between Duke Frederick and Celia appears to be less
valued than that between Rosalind and her father, because when Duke
Frederick decides to banish Rosalind, Celia unhesitatingly joins her,
showing her strength of character to be able to leave her father:
“Duke Frederick: … Firm and irrevocable is my doom
Which I have pass’d upon her; she is banish’d.
Family loyalty refers to the feelings of mutual obligation, commitment, and closeness that exist among family members (e.g., parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren and siblings). A loyal per¬son is ready to sacrifice even his own life for the sake of his master, friend, relative or the country. The significance of loyalty in family relationship is an integral part in both Macleod’s novel No Great Mischief and Shakespeare’s play King Lear. However, the characters in No great Mischief have demonstrated true devotion towards every family member whereas Lear’s stubbornness prevents him from being faithful which is shown by the characters.
“It is a wise father that knows his own child” stated by William Shakespeare, a poet, which suggests that a good parent must have a connection with their child. However, Shakespeare lacked parental affection, the plays that Shakespeare had written, never had a well established relationship between a parent and their child. However the correlation between a parent and child may vary in many occasions and factors such as a healthy/unhealthy relationship, a tempting desire for self success, and a change of heart. Therefore, through an analysis of Jeannette Wall’s The Glass Castle, William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie, and Martin Fan’s bond with His parents, it becomes clear that the establishments between a
We can argue that Shakespeare uses ‘family’ as a catalyst to King Lear and Hamlets madness. Family by definition means “any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins” but metaphorically family is used to define inclusive categories such as community, friendship and humanism. The humanist movement influenced the production of Hamlet and King Lear in the Elizabethan era. It was the belief in the worth of all humans and that truth can be found through introspection. The Ancient Greek influence on Shakespeare and the play meant that most events were based on hard determinism, this belief makes Shakespeare form the play in a fashion that deprives the characters of free will and therefore a descend into tragedy. A family is perceived as the pillar that holds everyone within the bloodline together however it is the family that lead to the madness of the protagonists in each of the plays.
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as
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.
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.
The essentially healthy emotional intelligence of Rosalind and Orlando and their suitability for each other emerge from their separate encounters with Jaques (in some editions Jacques), the melancholy ex-courtier who is part of Duke Senior's troupe in the forest. Both Rosalind and Orlando take an instant dislike to Jaques (which is mutual). And in that dislike we are invited to see something vitally right about the two of them.
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.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Comp. Folger Shakespeare Library. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
In many of his plays, especially tragedies, William Shakespeare examines the relationships people have with one another. Of these relationships, he is particularly interested in those between family members, above all, those between parents and their children. In his play Hamlet, Shakespeare examines Prince Hamlet's relationships with his dead father, mother and step-father. His relationship with Gertrude, one of the only two women in the play, provides Hamlet with a deep sense of anger and pain. Hamlet feels that Gertrude has betrayed his father by marrying with his brother. Throughout the play, he is consumed with avenging his father's death and all the mistreatment the former King had suffered and still suffers after his life is over. Gertrude adds to the dead King's tarnished memory by not mourning and instead rejoicing in her new marriage. Hamlet is thus extremely angry with Gertrude and expresses this anger towards her directly and indirectly through his words, both to himself and to other characters.
Ever since you had left Venice, your home, I had came to a realisation that I, your loving father should always accept you and your decisions after all you are my loving daughter. Your mother and I had been blessed by the gods with a gift much more valuable than any riches and when I first laid eyes on you I knew that you would always be like your mother, you inherited her beauty, personality and all of her other unique qualities that she possessed and from me you inherited my spirit, stubbornness and to always follow your heart. I did not see it back then and I was only thinking about the future of the family name and in doing so I forgot about your happiness. I had believed that I had failed as a father and sought for advice from my dear brother, Gratiano, I informed him of the courses of events that had taken place in our household and that his niece has left for Cyprus with her newly wedded husband that I did not approve of. I had hoped that Gratiano would take part in my side but your uncle had reminded me of what I had done to protect and to preserve my love for you beloved mother. So I write to you to ask for forgiveness for the disappointing father that failed to accept you and to tell you the story that you had long requested for.
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.
1) The difference between distributive and integrative bargaining Negotiation approaches are generally described as either distributive or integrative. At the heart of each strategy is a measurement of conflict between each party’s desired outcomes. Consider the following situation. Chris, an entrepreneur, is starting a new business that will occupy most of his free time for the near future.
In today’s life, arguments between parents and their children occur quite often. You may even be able to think about a time in which you’ve argued with a parent or sibling, which resulted in tension between the two of you for a while. Disagreements between one person and another occur not only in real life, but also in famous fictional worlds, such as Romeo and Juliet. In today’s life, Romeo and Juliet, and Attack on Titan, issues dealing with disagreements between children and their parental figures continuously occur, and often lead to to detriment, or a disservice for both the parental figure, the child, and even others.
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.