As You Like It Essay Questions

What is the play's outlook on love?

As You Like It, like many of Shakespeare's comedies, features love, desire, and romantic pursuit as one of its central themes. In many ways, the concept of love is presented ironically in the play, especially through the character of Orlando: his hyperbolic declarations of love for Rosalind satirize the Petrarchan tradition that preceded Shakespeare's work (and Shakespeare himself satirizes this tradition in his Sonnets). However, despite the playful mocking of Orlando, the play ultimately suggests that love is powerful enough to inspire the foolishness and ridiculous he seems to display. Thus, it is not altogether critical of the concept of love; instead, it delights in the entertainment value that love can produce.

Whom or what does Shakespeare satirize through Orlando's character?

Throughout the play, Orlando uses hyperbolic expressions of love to convey his feelings for Rosalind. At one point, he asserts that seeing her frown would be enough to kill him. These over-the-top declarations are part of Shakespeare's satirization of the Petrarchan literary tradition – that is, the poetic style pioneered by Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, in which the speaker often laments that unrequited love causes him physical distress. This tradition mostly preceded Shakespeare, but overlapped with his early literary career. Through Orlando, the play playfully mocks these conventions but, at the same time, establishes the extent to which Shakespeare and his contemporaries were indebted to the sixteenth-century Petrarchan poets.

What does Rosalind's disguise suggest about gender norms?

At the beginning of the play, Rosalind and Orlando both retreat into the Forest of Arden for their own reasons. There, Rosalind disguises herself as a boy named Ganymede. Later, when she runs into Orlando in the forest, she offers to help him practice his wooing for Rosalind, ultimately allowing her to get closer to him. Rosalind's disguise is portrayed as a type of freedom – ironically, it is only as a man that she can fully indulge in her feelings for Orlando and vice versa. Her disguise suggests a more fluid understanding of gender and sexuality, while also providing meta-theatrical commentary on the performance itself (as the part of Rosalind would have been played by a boy or young man).

How is the Forest of Arden portrayed compared to the French court?

Generally speaking, when characters in a comedy desert the city for the countryside or the woods, the performance sees a radical shift in tone. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, for example, the woods in which the characters find themselves are portrayed as enchanted and magical, complete with fairies and other mystical energy. In As You Like It, there is no supernatural phenomena at work. However, the Forest of Arden appears in stark contrast to the French court from which the characters originated: the forest is freeing, allowing characters to take on new identities (see: Rosalind), while the court is full of anxiety, social pressure, and feuds over power and inheritance. Thus, the play presents its primary setting (the forest) as an escape or refuge from the constraints of urban or courtly life.

What elements of As You Like It make it a comedy?

As You Like It falls into the genre of comedy for a number of reasons. First, the play features a retreat from the court to a more natural setting – something that rarely happens in early modern tragedies, which tend to focus on drama within the court or noble families. Second, the play relies on dramatic irony for a large portion of its plot, in that Orlando has no idea that the woman he loves is dressed up as his newfound companion, Ganymede. Finally, comedies generally conclude with at least one marriage, and this play ends with four of them: the conflicts that dominated the majority of the play are resolved, evil-doers are transformed, and lovers are united as their true selves.