As You Like It Shakespeare

 As you like it is Shakespeare’s comedy and love is the theme of the story.  The story is start from a young man, Orlando, who’s the leading man in the play. He is forced to work like his own brother, Oliver’s servant. And Oliver even pushed him into a deadly wrestling contest, where Orlando won a fortune for himself and met his love, the heroine of the play, Rosalind.

 Rosalind was banished by her father’s brother, the new duke who displaced Rosalind’s father.  Rosalind ran to Forest Arden and so did her friend, Celia and the court jester. Incidentally Orlando came, too. And the end of the story is that almost every main character finds their love.  What a happy ending!

 Rosalind, the heroine of the play disguised as a young man and gave herself” Ganymebe” as an assumed name. I think this kind of behavior is for security of herself and Celia.  Obviously, a pair of ladies live in a forest is so dangerous, and a group at least includes a man (the court jester is not that stable enough) is better.

 Also the manlike clothing is far more convenient than wearing a lovely dress for moving about in the forest.  Furthermore, the banishment, the solitariness and the pain of losing her father may cause the sub consciousness of insecurity rooted in her mind.  She might to equip the fragile inside with arms and cover herself an optimistic look. She loved Orlando at the first sight, too.

 Testing and teaching the love of Orlando under the disguise is not only a romantic love game, but also a certainty she wanted to get as a never-loose position.  She can fool Orlando around as she likes and enjoy the flattering words from him without any fear of bad acting or speaking like the other girls toward someone they love.

 We can see that there are four various types of love— Rosalind and Orlando’s true love at first sight, Silvius (a shepherd in Forest Arden) and Phebe’s (a farmerette) unrequited love, and Phebe and Orlando’s attraction to Ganymebe—the hint homosexuality.

 Love at first sight is lucky, but both two person have the same feeling is even luckier.  In a normal play, an extremely handsome prince will always met a princess with extremely beauty, and, happy ending. This part of the story is so ideal, so rare. But the unrequited love is even rarer.  For example, if Orlando is not falling in Rosalind or the inverse situation, love may not happen.  Apart from Orlando and Rosalind, I think Silvius is most impressive.

 No wonder this comedy is being so popular with the many types of love that almost can meet everybody’s like and the cross-dressing part which is still a newfangled and latest subject nowadays.

 The period is during the fourteen century, and France was still divided by duchies so there are many cases like banishment.  Forest of Arden is the ideal place the writer given for people who want to run away from the chaos of politics.  There are full of the atmosphere of free- air and the feeling of” live like Robin Hood”.

 In Chinese we say” 桃花源 ”.  The freedom from the ordinary cares is the whole thing they pursuit in Forest of Arden, and so do we.

 Hillegass, C.K —Cliffs Notes on Shakespeare’s As You Like It,Lincoln, Nebraska, Cliff’s, 1962  Brown, John Russell --The Shakespeare Handbook As You Like It, London, Macmillan, 1979  Shakespeare, William -- As You Like It, New York, SIGNET, 1987