Rosalind as Heroine
of Shakespearean Comedy Paper
Many
characters experience a change in William Shakespeare’s play, As You like It.
Duke Senior goes from being a part of a courtyard to being a part of a forest.
Orlando changes from a harsh younger brother to an infatuated young man. But the
most apparent transformation undergone is done by Rosalind. She alters from
woman to man, not merely alter her mood, frankness, and gender, but allows her
to be the master of rituals.
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Rosalind controls As You Like It. So completely realized is she in the
difficulty of her emotions, the delicacy of her thought, and the completeness of
her character that nobody else in the play goes with her. Orlando is
good-looking, physically powerful, and a bad but loving poet, thus far still we
feel that Rosalind resolves for someone to some extent less wonderful when she
chooses him as her mate. Likewise, the observations of Touchstone and Jaques,
who might shine more brilliantly in another play, seem to a certain extent dull
whenever Rosalind takes the stage. “Rosalind stands out as the most vigorous,
multidimensional and endearing character, so much that she tends to surpass the
other characters in audience reminiscence”. (Wells, 1986)
The never-ending appeal of watching Rosalind has much to do with her
accomplishment as a knowledgeable and charming detractor of her and others. But
not like Jaques, who refuses to contribute completely in life but has much to
say about the stupidity of those who enclose him, Rosalind gives herself over
entirely to circumstance. She reprimands Silvius for his irrational attachment
to Phoebe, and she challenges Orlando's inconsiderate equation of Rosalind with
a Platonic ideal, nevertheless still she comes undone by her lover's unimportant
lateness and faints at the sight of his blood. That Rosalind can take part in
both sides of any field makes her particular to almost everyone, and so,
tempting.
Celia and Rosalind were quite happy in the court of Celia’s father named Duke
Frederick. On the other hand, much to her shock, the Duke expels Rosalind from
his court. Celia, not permitting her beloved cousin to go it alone, decides to
go along with her to where ever she may wander. They make a decision to search
out Rosalind’s father, Duke Senior, in the Forest of Arden. Before they leave,
Rosalind makes a decision that for both her and Celia’s protection, she will
dress herself as a man.
At first momentary look, this alteration is a mere change of clothes and the
addition of weapons, but it goes much deeper.
To Rosalind, the taking on of a man’s look requires certain things. She believes
that whilst dressed as a man, she cannot bring disgrace to the image of a man. A
good instance of this is in Act 2, Scene 4, where she says, "I could discover in
my heart to dishonor my man’s/ attire and to cry like a woman; but I must
console/ the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose have to show / it brave to
petticoat. (Latham 1975)
“There is no doubt, either in the serious or play-going mind, that Rosalind is
the grandest of female roles". (Champion, L.S. 1978)
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She includes a multitude of character brushstrokes, from the love struck maiden
to the amusing arch tongue, steel-backboned princess to the blistering Wise One.
To add to the requirements of the character Shakespeare adds in an external
sex-change and additional makes Ganymede imagine being Rosalind to Orlando.
Though this type of "boy acting a girl acting a boy acting a girl" type of
transmogrifications were not rare upon the Elizabethan stage, the sort of mind
and acting depicted by Rosalind would dwarf that of the others on stage, and
make her show up for her cunning and sense of fun.
“Rosalind is an exacting favorite among feminist critics, who have a high regard
for her ability to undermine the limitations that society imposes on her as a
woman”. (Nevo, 1981)
With courage and thoughts, she costumes herself as a young man for the greater
part of the play in order to persuade the man she loves and teach him in how to
be a more accomplished, considerate lover—a tutorship that would not be greeted
from her as a woman. There is nonstop comic appeal in Rosalind's ridiculing of
the gatherings of both male and female behavior, but an Elizabethan audience may
have felt a certain amount of concern regarding her behavior. After all, the
structure of a male-dominated culture depends upon both men and women performing
in their assigned roles. Therefore, in the end, Rosalind dispenses with the
pretense of her own character. Her appearance as an actor in the Epilogue
assures that theatergoers, similar to the Ardenne foresters, are about to leave
a rather enchanted realm and return to the well-known world they left behind.
But for the reason that they leave having learned the same lessons from
Rosalind, they do so with the same latent to make that world a less punishing
place.
Shakespeare highlights the distinction between actuality and delusion. Rosalind
embodies the susceptibility, the humor and the type of love that leads to a
contented, harmonious living. She brings the conspirator to a decree when four
contrasting romances end in marriage. The center of the play is her romance with
Orlando. Rosalind wants to stumble on a lover without losing her intellect of
self in the process. Rosalind answers the questions concerning love, which arise
during the play. She is an obsessed maiden and yet she remains an intelligent,
witty, and strapping character. Rosalind is as well a good judge of character.
As You Like It holds as many characters as there are in life, but Rosalind is
used as the vehicle for the perfect. Her major supporting characters are full of
life, and although not as much as Rosalind, it is still life for the entire of
it. The less significant characters have to be more one-sided to keep the plot
in order, but sometimes the one-dimensionality jars, as with Oliver. Rosalind's
vitality would outshine any other character, for to make an Othello opposite her
would create an argument that this greatest of comedies does not need.
Rosalind surpasses everyone else in the play with her intellect, wit and
profundity of feeling. Her humanity and wisdom of fun make her the perfect
romantic heroine. She seems to be centuries ahead of her time. She is a woman
who is completely the master of her own fortune and she remains in control most
of the time. Shakespeare has created an almost ideal heroine who brings the play
to its ending.
Works Cited
William Shakespeare, As You Like It. ed. Agnes Latham London, New York:
Routledge, 1975,
Wells, Stanley. (Ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1986, pg 47,
Champion, L.S. The Evolution of Shakespeare's Comedy: A Study in Dramatic
Perspective. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978, pg 45,
Nevo, Ruth. Comic Transformations in Shakespeare. New York: Routledge, Chapman &
Hall, 1981 pg 68
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