‘As You Like It’ — NOTES ON THE TEXT

The plot moves swiftly in the beginning of "As You Like It" (and then stands almost still until the fifth act) because the interest of the play is not intended to arise out of the action or situation. The play is chiefly concerned with two enduring human illusions - the pastoral ideal, or the dream of a simple life, and the ideal of romantic love. These are given an extremely complex representation through dialogue and contrasting relationships. The plot creates the conditions for this representation. The characters are given reason to wander in the woodland, the proper setting in which to develop the theme of pastoralism. Four diverse pairs are caused to fall in love and their contrasting romances will exemplify the varieties of love. Rosalind, given a double identity, can spoof love and yet be a lover. The plot does very well what it is designed to do.

Englishmen in the Renaissance liked to construe life as an interaction of Fortune and Nature, and in "As You Like It" there is some talk of these two goddesses. Rosalind, for instance, instructs Celia: "Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of Nature" (Act 1, Scene 2). The only tension in the plot of "As You Like It", set up in the first act, derives from Fortune's unjust distribution of the gifts of the world. The nobler natures, Duke Senior, Rosalind, Celia, and Orlando, are made to suffer by Fortune while the wicked, Oliver and Duke Frederick, thrive. This imbalance between Fortune and Nature requires resolution. The resolution provided is exceptionally good-humored, far more so than in either "Much Ado About Nothing" or "Twelfth Night", the two plays with which "As You Like It" is conventionally grouped. The wicked are not punished or left rancorous but are converted and, now as virtuous men, Frederick and Oliver bring the fortunes of Duke Senior, Rosalind, and Orlando into harmony with their natures. Frederick's conversion is accomplished by contact with an old religious man, Oliver's by Orlando's generosity in saving his life. Fortunes are adjusted and dark natures are brightened by the simple impact of virtue. All of this makes a tidy package if Fortune and Nature are conceived as the major forces in life and if these forces are thought to work toward human happiness. Shakespeare's world view was ordinarily more complex.

["As You Like It"] is intended to suggest that human life can be harmoniously lived; that good sense, love, humor, and a generous disposition will produce happiness. Such a view requires not suppression of, but inattention to, those aspects of motivation and of human relationship that, in life, continually postpone a general harmony. A world that includes irreconcilable personal conflict and unrepenting evil can achieve justice, but not universal happiness. (Albert Gilman, Signet Classic Shakespeare Series)