As You Like It By William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) Essays

As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) Type of Work: Romantic comedy Setting France; Duke Frederick's court and Forest of Arden; 1500s Principal Characters Duke Senior, exiled rightful ruler Duke Frederick, usurper of his brother's dukedom Oliver and Orlando, sons of Sir Rowland de Boys Adam, long-time servant to Sir Rowland Rosalind, Duke Senior's daughter Celia, Duke Frederick's daughter Phebe, a shepherdess Silvius, a shepherd with unrequited love for Phebe Touchstone, a "motley fool" jester who provides good-humor throughout the play Story Overveiw Orlando was angry with his older brother Oliver for giving him nothing from their father's estate. He complained loudly to Adam, an old family servant. just then, in walked Oliver, the object of Orlando's ire. They quarreled, and though Adam pled with them"for your father's remembrance" not to fight, Orlando continued to demand his share of the inheritance - which Oliver at last reluctantly granted in order to avoid violence. Then, as Orlando left, Oliver drove Adam out as well: "Get you with him, you old dog." Left alone, Oliver summoned mighty Charles, the court wrestler. The next day Orlando was to wrestle Charles, and Oliver charged him, "I had as lief thou did'st break his neck as his finger." Meanwhile, at the court of Duke Frederick, his daughter Celia consoled melancholy Rosalind, her cousin - and the daughter of the recently deposed duke Senior. But Celia's consolations were futile; Rosalind could not "forget a banished father." Only when Celia promised that she would turn over her whole future inheritance - the dukedom itself - to Rosalind, did Rosalind grow "merry" again. The cousins then decided to go watch the wrestling match. Meeting Orlando on the way, they tried to persuade him to "give over this attempt" at besting Charles, who had already crushed the ribs of three challengers. But Orlando would not be dissuaded. The match ended quickly; to the astonishment of all, Charles was thrown and Orlando declared the victor. Duke Frederick called the champion forward to receive his reward, but upon learning that Orlando was the son of his enemy, Sir Rowland, he angrily sent the young man on his way. Rosalind, on the other hand, offered her hero a chain: "Wear this for me," she told him. Then she blushingly added, "Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown more than your enemies." Just days later, Duke Frederick gruffly took Rosalind aside. "Within these ten days" he warned, "if that thou be'st found so near our public court as twenty miles, thou diest for it." When Rosalind protested that she was not a traitor, her uncle was unmoved. As the daughter of Duke Senior, Frederick's deposed brother, Rosalind was unwelcome in his realm. But unbeknownst to Frederick, his own daughter Celia offered to join her cousin in exile. That night the girls would depart for the forest of Arden, where Duke Senior now lived. Since the forest was a dangerous place for two women alone, the taller Rosalind dressed as a pageboy, calling herself "Ganymede," while Celia put on the rags of a shepherdess, and called herself "Aliena." They also invited the "clownish fool of [the] court," Touchstone, to accompany them. That evening, the three fugitives escaped, undetected. Now that same night, Adam warned Orlando of Oliver's plan to burn Orlando's house, leaving him no safe refuge. Adam offered Orlando his life's savings and asked, "Let me be your servant." Orlando gladly accepted and together they, too, left for the forest of Arden. As Celia, Touchstone, and Rosalind - she in boy's clothing - made their way through the woods, they overheard a shepherd, Silvius, pouring out his heart to his friend Corin: "O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her [Phebel!" With this, the distraught shepherd ran away. Rosalind and company, "with travel much oppressed," then approached Corin, and he extended an invitation for them to eat and rest in his own humble cottage. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Adam, faint after their long journey, complained to Orlando: "Dear master ... I die for food." Orlando promised he would bring victuals to the faithful old servant, or die trying. As he searched for food, he came upon the exiled Duke Senior and his men, who were about to eat. Orlando strutted towards them and menacingly decreed, "Forebear, and eat no more! ... He dies that touches any of this fruit till I and my affairs are answered." Duke Senior, unoffended, invited Orlando to sit down and join them. Then, embarrassed by his own behavior, Orlando begged their forgiveness and hurried to retrieve Adam. As everyone ate, Orlando revealed to Duke