As You Like It By Shakespeare

William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Poems

As You Like It Essay

1300 Words MINIMUM and Five Quotations

As You Like It[1599]: is one of Shakespeare’s most self-consciously “theatrical” plays. That is, the characters almost seem aware that they are actors on the various “stages” of human society (culminating in Jacques’ famous line “all the word’s a stage…”). For this exam, examine at least THREE characters in the play and demonstrate how they approach their social roles as actors. Hints: the characters have roles in the outside society that they either try to replicate or hide once they meet in the Forest of Arden. Disguise is also a portion of this, wherein Rosalind can even switch genders in their role-playing. Other characters fulfill roles in society that require a kind of acting, for example, Touchstone is a “Fool.” An additional layer of complexity is created by Shakespeare’s use and simultaneous satire of the Pastoral Genre in English literature. Using these starting points, write an essay that discusses

1. In the end, are we all merely players strutting and fretting on a stage (this is the source of the cynicism that both Touchstone and Jacques display) or are we free agents of ourselves (as when Rosalind and Celia choose their own husbands)? A hint about developing this one is to, even with the three characters you choose, connect them with a partner that they marry at the end – unless, like Jaques they remain alone.

2. In addition, be sure to examine how the various characters connect to the Elizabethan genre/style/philosophy of The Pastoral (and Shakespeare’s satirizing of it as well).