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.
I
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
Brown, Steve. 'The Boyhood of Shakespeare's Heroines: Notes on Gender Ambiguity in The Sixteenth Century.' Studies In English Literature 30 (Spring 1990): 243-264.
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.
Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.
"Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Causes of Ocd." By Ruth Moran. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Racial profiling is not a new activity but is now more widely seen on the streets and in social media which in turn has caused a negative impact on law enforcement and social unrest among minorities. In fact, "Carter indicates that the debate involving racial and ethnic profiling following the terroristic attacks opened the doors for the federal government to conduct more extensive routine enforcement and investigations which will probably get out of hand" [1].
Some symptoms of Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are fear of germs, perfectionism, and rituals. When someone has OCD they are afraid of germs and might constantly be washing their hands or cleaning their room. Someone who suffers from OCD needs everything to be perfect and they might organize their closet by color size. Their rituals calm their anxiety. Certain rituals are things such as checking the stove a certain number of times to make sure it is off or tap their finger a number of times just because it makes them feel better. Obsessive compulsive disorder can be associated with other mental disorders that cause stress and anxiety, but it can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy and medication.
Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.
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.
Siggins, P. (2002). Racial Profiling in an Age of Terrorism. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/profiling.html
Obsessive Compulsive disorder also known in simpler terms as OCD is a disorder that is classified under the anxiety disorders. OCD is the result of paranoia within ones brain. Although having the diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a start there are many sub groups and types of OCD that someone may possibly posses either one or a multitude of them. One of the highest diagnosed sub-types of OCD is Compulsive Checking. In this type of OCD the person diagnosed has a fear that they will be harmed or harm someone else by everyday tasks. Compulsive checking can wreak havoc on the inflicted person’s life typically in more ways than one. “Perceptions of danger and intolerance of uncertainty again emerged as cognitive variables that play important roles in mediating obsessive-compulsive checking behavior” (Overton & Menzies, 2005). OCD can be linked with an earlier life experience and can be helped by therapeutic means or medication.
For a person to be diagnosed with OCD, they need to have both an obsession and a compulsion. An obsession is best defined as recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced during the disturbance as intrusive and unwanted. While compulsions are defined by: repetitive behaviours such as hand washing, ordering, checking in which the person feels they feel strongly compelled to perform in response to their obsession The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The most empirically sound method of treatment is called Exposure response prevention (Himle & Franklin, 2009). This will be the psychological method of treatment discussed.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can be best characterized by the recurrent or disturbing thoughts that are labeled as obsessions. Sometime these obsessions can take on the form of intrusive images or the unwanted impulses. The compulsions can come from the repetitive or ritualized behaviors that a person feels driven to perform on a daily basis. The majority of people with the diagnosis of OCD can have both obsessions and compulsions, but most of the times about 20% have obsessions alone while 10% may have the compulsions alone (Goodman M.D., 2013) . Common types that have been illustrated in individual’s diagnoses with OCD can be characterized with concerns of contamination, safety or harm to themselves, unwanted acts of aggression, the unacceptable sexual or religious thoughts, and the need for symmetry or exactness. While some of the most common compulsion can be characterized as excessive cleaning, checking, ordering, and arranging rituals or the counting and repeating routines activities that are done sometimes on a daily basis multiple times in a day.
Scott, Mark W., ed. "As You Like It." Shakespeare Criticism. Vol. V. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Co., 1987.
“Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder, OCD” 18 Mar. 2014 National Institute of Mental Health. 18 Mar. 2014 http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd
Behavior, and Treatment. Helpguide.org: Expert, ad-free articles help empower you with knowledge, support & hope. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/obsessive_compulsive_disorder_ocd.htm
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.