As You Like It (Vol. 57) | Gene Fendt (essay date 1995)
Gene Fendt (essay date 1995)
SOURCE: “Resolution, Catharsis, Culture: As You Like It,” in Philosophy and Literature, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1995, pp. 248-60.
[In the following essay, Fendt explores the cathartic effects of As You Like It on the audience, juxtaposing the views of the characters Jaques and Touchstone.]
Happiness does not lie in amusement; indeed it would be strange … if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself. Relaxation, then, is not an end; for it is taken for the sake of activity.
Aristotle (NE 1176b30-35)
Comedy is a vision of dianoia, a significance which is ultimately social significance.
Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism
As with tragedy and music, it seems that there are several kinds of catharsis that are plausible in a comedy.1 Let us take the example...
[The entire page is 6187 words long]
Navigate
