W. Shakespeare "As You Like it"

Aiste Ridikaite – Kaminskiene Instructor Jacky Bartz ENG 455 Shakespeare 30 November 2004 Humor Disguise One of the earliest Shakespeare’s comedies “As You Like It” is called a comedy of “Christian” values. It discusses such values as “brotherly love, marital union, tolerance for different viewpoints, and optimism about life at large” (eNotes). Rosalind is the heroine of this play and embodies all of those Christian characteristics. She is a charismatic personality. She is beautiful, wise, and strong and has a sense of humor. Moreover, the reader can see that Rosalind hides certain emotions behind her outstanding humor in order to protect the feelings of other people or to secure her own innermost feelings that are not yet could be displayed. That makes her even more attractive heroine because her humor is not flat or dull, it always has meaning. The first scene where Rosalind appears is Scene 2. The reader sees immediately that Rosalind is sad and she has a reason for that: her father is banished. However, when she is asked to be merry by her cousin Celia, she agrees for the sake of the cousin. Immediately after that she proposes a sport of falling in love (lines 22-23). Falling in love is rarely to be considered to be a sport and especially a sport which could make you merry. This could be seen as Rosalind’s first exposure of humor, yet the reader still knows that she is not happy and suffers because of the banishment of her father. Later she is able to lead the humorous conversation with Le Beau. Her remarks such as “As wit and fortune will” (Act I Scene 2, line 97) are even evaluated aloud by her cousin as a humorous and straight to point remarks. “Well said: that was laid on with a trowel.” (Act I Scene 2, line 99). Thus, from the first sight the reader is able to see that Rosalind though sad because of the banishment of her father, is able to look at things with humor and hide her sad feelings. Next time the reader meets Rosalind in Act I Scene 3. At this moment she is already in love with Orlando and is banished from the court. Even then she is able to imply humor in her speech. She says: “A board-spear in my hand; and, in my heart/ Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will,/ We’ll have a swashing and martial outside./ As many other mannish cowards have/ That do outface it with their semblances.” (Act I Scene 3, lines 116-120). In this speech she is mocking men and addressing certain gender inequality problems. It seems that even in such hopeless situation she is able to find something that would cheer up her and the people around her at least a bit. Later in the Act III Scene 2 the reader sees Rosalind again. She is disguised as a man but with Celia she allows herself to be herself and when they talk about Orlando, Rosalind behaves as a woman: when she thinks, she must speak. (Act III Scene 2 lines 253-254). As she says so, she implies irony in the description of a woman. The reader knows that Rosalind is not like that, jet she describes herself as if she was. Thus, this comment is also humorous and it laughs at the men’s opinion about women. Hence, after this remark the reader understands that though in quite unpleasant situation (she must disguise herself as a man) Rosalind is able to laugh at her situation and remain optimistic. When Rosalind talks to Orlando she is also able to use her sense of humor to know more about Orlando as well as to wisely lead him to the situation that she needs. At first she asks irrelevant question to grasp Orlado’s attention: “I pry you, what is’t o’clock?” (Act III Scene 2, line 293). When she leads the conversation and in the end she manages to end the conversation in a way she is willing to: Orlando promises to follow her. Moreover, she manages to get some information that she needs out of the conversation, in line 374 Orlando tells that he is in love. Thus, be using her wit and humor Rosalind manages to capture Orlando’s attention, get the information that she need from him and also end the conversation in the way that she needs it to end. In this way the reader sees how clever she is and how she is able to hide her true feelings such as love behind the humor that she uses to achieve her goals. In the Act IV Scene 1 Rosalind appears to be in the situation when it is very hard mask her feelings to Orlando. She suggests for him to play that he is getting married with Rosalind. In such closeness with the lover to be not able to express her affection is very hard for her for she says so in the end of the scene: “I cannot be out of the sight of Orlando: I’ll go find a shadow, and sigh till he come” (Act IV Scene 1, lines 203-204). Still, she adopts a very sarcastic attitude about love when she speaks to Orlando. (“Orlando: then love me, Rosalind./ Rosalind: Yes, faith will I, Fridays and Saturdays and all” {Act IV Scene 1, lines 106-107}). Hence, the reader is able to se how she employees her humor to conceal her true feelings and to keep countenance. In the comedy As You Like It Shakespeare created a very bright and attractive character of woman. Rosalind is smart and wise, she is beautiful and does not use it to her privilege, she strong personality, however, knows how to be sensitive, she also has an outstanding sense of humor and knows how to use it properly. Her humor can be mild and can be sharp; however, she never uses it to insult other people. Moreover, she uses he humor wisely to hide certain emotions that could upset other people or betray her innermost feelings. In this way Rosalind becomes a very attractive character who is considerate of others and knows herself very well. These two characteristics only proves that she is a hero with Christian features. This fact contributes to the notion that As You Like It is a “Christian” comedy. Bibliography eNotes. As You Like It. 2004. 26 November 2004.

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