1. List the “town” characters in the play, enumerate their attributes, and discuss how they reflect town life. Use the same format for the “country” characters. 2. There are four pairs of lovers in the play. Characterize each couple and discuss the concept of love that they represent. 3. Give […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essay The Natural and the Artificial in As You Like It
Shakespeare’s themes are often expressed in terms of oppositions, such as the conflicting values associated with fair and foul in Macbeth. As You Like It is no exception. Running throughout As You Like It is a tension of antithesis between the natural (that which is free, spontaneous, and wholesome) and […]
Read more Critical Essay The Natural and the Artificial in As You Like ItWilliam Shakespeare Biography
Many books have assembled facts, reasonable suppositions, traditions, and speculations concerning the life and career of William Shakespeare. Taken as a whole, these materials give a rather comprehensive picture of England’s foremost dramatic poet. Tradition and sober supposition are not necessarily false because they lack proved bases for their existence. […]
Read more William Shakespeare BiographyCharacter Analysis Touchstone
In the stage directions of the First Folio, Touchstone is designated as being a “clowne”; later, he is referred to as a “fool.” Basically, the term “clowne” was more applicable to a country bumpkin, whereas the term “fool” was applied to the professional jester — that is, the fool, the […]
Read more Character Analysis TouchstoneCharacter Analysis Celia
Celia is in some ways the mirror that Shakespeare holds up to the audience to show the depths of Rosalind’s passions. For that reason, the fact that Celia in many ways resembles Rosalind is not surprising. The two girls have almost identical backgrounds. They are princesses, cousins, and inseparable companions, […]
Read more Character Analysis CeliaCharacter Analysis Rosalind
Just as Orlando, the hero of the play, exemplifies the best of the Anglo-Saxon and Elizabethan virtues of a man, Rosalind, the heroine of this comedy, exemplifies the best of virtues to be found in a Renaissance English woman. She is intelligent, witty, warm, strong of character, and she possesses […]
Read more Character Analysis RosalindCharacter Analysis Orlando
Basically, Orlando de Boys is “everything that doth become a man” — that is, he epitomizes the Elizabethan concept of the ideal manly virtues, and he is also the embodiment of his late father’s moral precepts. When the play begins, we hear him speaking about his late father’s final wishes, […]
Read more Character Analysis OrlandoSummary and Analysis Act V: Epilogue
Summary In keeping with the magical, dramatic effects of the last scene, Rosalind asks for the audience’s approval by invoking some formulas of conjuration. Analysis “A good wine needs no bush,” Rosalind’s gay comment on the play, is a well-known proverb. The ivy bush was a well-known sign of the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act V: EpilogueSummary and Analysis Act V: Scene 4
Summary The climactic wedding day is now at hand. Among those present are Duke Senior, Jaques, and the three couples: Orlando and Rosalind (still disguised as Ganymede), Oliver and Celia (still masquerading as Aliena), and Phebe and Silvius. Rosalind extracts a promise from Phebe that if Phebe refuses to marry […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act V: Scene 4Summary and Analysis Act V: Scene 3
Summary “To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey,” Touchstone tells his true love; “to-morrow will we be married.” They are entertained then by two of the duke’s pages, who sing, appropriately, “It was a lover and his lass.” Afterward, Touchstone bids the minstrels “God be wi’ you; and God mend your […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act V: Scene 3