As You Like It Summary

As You Like It by William Shakespeare is a comedic play about two couples who fall in love between the contrasting worlds of the court and the forest.

  • Duke Frederick exiles his brother, allowing his niece Rosalind to stay. She falls in love with Orlando. 
  • Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind, who disguises herself as a man and flees with Celia, Frederick’s daughter.
  • Orlando writes love poems to Rosalind. Finding them, the disguised Rosalind persuades Orlando to woo her as if she were Rosalind.
  • Phoebe falls in love with Rosalind. Oliver falls in love with Celia.
  • Rosalind reveals her true identity, and all couples get married.

Summary

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One of Shakespeare's early plays, As You Like It (1598-1599), is a stock romantic comedy that was familiar to Elizabethan audiences as an exemplar of "Christian" comedy. Although the play does include two offstage spiritual conversions, the "Christian" designation does not refer to religion itself. Instead, it denotes the restoration and regeneration of society through the affirmation of certain Christian values such as brotherly love, marital union, tolerance for different viewpoints, and optimism about life at large.

The plot is very simple: the resolution of the dramatic problem in the warped attitudes of two evil brothers toward good brothers, and related obstacles to marriage for several couples in the play (most notably Rosalind and Orlando) are easily overcome, and a happy ending is never in doubt. On one level, the play was clearly intended by Shakespeare as a simple, diverting amusement; several scenes in As You Like It are essentially skits made up of songs and joking banter. But on a somewhat deeper level, the play provides opportunities for its main characters to discuss a host of subjects (love, aging, the natural world, and death) from their particular points of view. At its center, As You Like It presents us with the respective worldviews of Jaques, a chronically melancholy pessimist preoccupied with the negative aspects of life, and Rosalind, the play's Christian heroine, who recognizes life's difficulties but holds fast to a positive attitude that is kind, playful, and, above all, wise. In the end, the enjoyment that we receive from the play's comedy is reinforced and validated by a humanistic Christian philosophy gently woven into the text by a benevolent Shakespeare.

Expert Q&A

The historical and biographical context of Shakespeare's As You Like It

As You Like It was written by William Shakespeare around 1599-1600, during the Elizabethan era, a time of relative peace and flourishing arts. The play reflects the pastoral tradition popular in that period. Biographically, Shakespeare was at the height of his career, producing many of his most famous works. The play's themes of love, disguise, and pastoral life mirror societal interests of the time.

The influences behind As You Like It

Shakespeare's As You Like It draws influences from Thomas Lodge's novel Rosalynde, pastoral literature, and classical mythology. Lodge's work provided the plot and characters, while the pastoral genre inspired the idyllic setting and themes of nature and simplicity. Classical mythology contributed to the play's themes of transformation and disguise, reflecting the fluidity of identity and social roles.

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