The Dramatic and Linguistic Means by which Shakespeare Presents Various Aspects of Love in As You Like It
The play "As you like it" was at the beginning of the 17th century and
in this era, audiences were fascinated by language and Shakespeare
capitalised on this by creating a play that focuses on the use of
language and drama to portray different aspects of love through many
of the characters. The hero-heroine relationship between Orlando and
Rosalind is the antithesis of the petrachan love of Silvius and
Phoebe.
I have chosen two extracts that I feel demonstrate Shakespeare's use
of drama and language to represent a variety of relationships. The
first extract is the exchange between Orlando and Rosalind in act
three scene two. The conversation is in prose and the language used by
both characters is specific to their type of love. The second extract
follows on from this scene and occurs between Touchstone and Audrey.
The fact that the second extract follows on immediately after the
first exaggerates the antithesis between the characters and their
attitudes regarding love and highlights the fact that Shakespeare has
used language to show different forms of love.
The first passage takes place in the forest and is the first occasion
when Orlando and Rosalind are alone together. At this point in the
play, Rosalind has assumed the identity of Ganymede, yet Orlando is
still deeply attracted to her, which is humorous to the audience. In
her role as Ganymede, Rosalind shows her true love for Orlando using
wit. There is also a flirtatious nature to the exchange between the
two and Rosalind mocks the female sex by referring to them as being
"Fantastical, apish, shallow, inconsistent, full of tears, full of
smiles…" She tests Orlando's feelings for her by claiming that women
are all of these negative things, and that he will have to live with
these things if he is to love her. She gives Orlando orders to "come
everyday to my cote, and woo me" Orlando replies to this by saying
"Now by the faith of my love, I will; tell me where it is.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”.
*Shakespeare, As You Like It, in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 4th ed. (New York: Longman, Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 1997).
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.
William Shakespeare is the most profound and impactful playwright of European theater. One reason his legacy still continues to this day is because of the deep, symbolic messages in his stories. This is shown in his play As You Like It, when he illustrates throughout the script the importance of community. As seen with Director Rick Lombardo’s production of the play, this theme is illustrated through visual design and musical elements. Additionally, more depth is found through the character Rosalind, who is able to relate to the audience while also driving forward the plot.
Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde is an unwieldy piece, the romance is thick, heavy, and conventional. Yet when Shakespeare took it in hand, to rework the tangled web of disguise and romance into As You Like It, he changed much of the emphasis, by both altering and adding characters. Rosalynde is a celebration of love; As You Like It, a philosophical discourse on love..
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
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.
Manipulation of Lyrics in As You Like It While it is a comedy of the turmoil of love and the experimentation with gender roles and identity, William Shakespeare's As you Like It is a historical preservation of Renaissance music. The play is fraught with spontaneous song and poetry, yet Shakespeare strategically manipulates these musical elements. Specifically, the lyrics and poetry of the play function to establish a soundtrack and a direct appeal to their Elizabethan audience, while providing Shakespeare with a valuable shorthand for character development. It is necessary to understand that music in Shakespeare's time functions as a complete renovation of sound, voice, and function. Paul Brian emphasizes that "whereas the music of the middle ages is predominately sacred, there is a great flourishing of ideas dedicated to secular topics, predominantly love, in the 15th through early 17th centuries" (1).
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.
To conclude, therefore, conflict is not absent from the play totally. It is As You Like It's knowledge and recognition of the dangers of love "Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love" and is still capable of being love struck: the affection being like "Bay of Portugal", and how it plays off that against the comedic exuberance of its interludes, verbal sparring and digressionary expositions, that provides the drama of the play. "Sweet", indeed, "are the uses of adversity".
Central to the pastoral vision of As You Like It is the setting in the Forest of Ardenne, especially the contrast between it and the ducal court. In the former, there is a powerful political presence which creates dangers. Deception lurks behind many actions, brothers have secret agendas against their brothers, and people have to answer to the arbitrary demands of power.
This duality of love is established early within the play with Orsino’s commentary on love. In Orsino’s lines, he describes the “spirit of love” as being “quick and fresh” (1.1.9), and he continues to explain how love “…falls into abatement and low pride even in a minute” (1.1.13-14). With these lines, Shakespeare expresses how quickly love can alternate from an entity of joy to one of extreme depression. By employing these lines so early in the play, the vision of love as a force of exceeding strength is firmly planted within the reader’s subconscious, and Shakespeare has prepared the reader to fully grasp the central theme of 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.
The film Shakespeare In Love is a very complex but straightforward plot. Where William Shakespeare was mandated to compose a play right at the moment when his imagination was minimal. Frustrated and looking for inspiration, he met a beautiful lady with the name of Viola de Lessups bumping his creativity giving birth to the so famous play “Romeo and Juliet.” The set of the events along with the actions Shakespeare and Viola take and the reactions they produce form the narrative of the film a long with the mise-se-scene made out of the movie a hit in Hollywood by capturing the attention of the audience with the combination of different artistic choices.
Shakespeare uses the idea of disguise in many of his plays. It is used as an escape from the characters’ personalities and sometimes for comic effect. In As You Like it, the disguise becomes very comical as in the time it was written only men could act on stage. This could lead to much confusion and comedy in the roles of those in disguise. Disguise can give the freedom to a character to act how they like and a chance for them to show their views. It was in the 16th Century that there became an increased sense of self consciousness and identity. This led to people creating an image for themselves. If one can create a self, they can create many different versions of themselves each showing a different aspect of that person. This links in very well with As You Like It because in the play, Rosalind creates many different disguises of herself. At one point she is disguised as a boy acting as Rosalind. Rosalind and Celia are the main focus for disguise in As You Like It. To ensure safety on their travels in the forest of Ardenne, they disguise themselves – Rosalind as a boy named Ganymede and Celia as a peasant named Aliena. Their names are also important to disguise. Aliena is similar to the Latin ‘Alius’ meaning other. Ganymede was a Trojan mythological hero. Rosalind also uses her disguise to test Orlando’s (the man she loves) feelings for her.