Learn Artificial Intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/ @aiwithaustin As You Like It is one of William Shakespeare’s comedies and begins with two pairs of brothers. Each pair is from a different family and within each pair, brother feuds with brother. A brother from one pair has a daughter named Rosalind. She falls in love with Orlando, a brother from the other pair. The story uses some of Shakespeare’s favorite devices: family rivalry and characters in disguise, with plenty of romantic mix-ups and confusion. *** As You Like It is thought to have been written in 1599 and was probably first performed in about 1603, though it did not appear in print until 1623. It is a comedy, which means there is humor throughout and the play will have some sort of happy ending. Shakespeare also wrote tragedies and histories, which have neither of those things. This play is a pastoral story. That means most of it takes place in the countryside among beautiful fields and forests as opposed to being set in a city, a castle, or a great house. The story opens in a small dukedom in France, where there is much strife between family members as well as in-fighting over who will rule the dukedom. The heroine, Rosalind, is the daughter of Duke Senior. Duke Senior was caught up in a family battle with his younger brother, Duke Frederick, and that fight only ended when Frederick deposed Senior, took his place as ruler of the dukedom, and exiled him. Duke Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, is allowed to remain at court because she is very close to her cousin Celia, the daughter of the now-ruling Duke Frederick. The hero, Orlando, is caught up in a family battle with his older brother, Oliver. Oliver wants Orlando gone and schemes to have him seriously injured, if not killed, in a wrestling match. Rosalind and Celia watch the wrestling contest and that is when Rosalind falls in love with the strong and handsome Orlando. Orlando manages to outwit his scheming brother and win the match. When Rosalind presents him with a chain as a symbol of his victory, he falls in love with her as well. Then Orlando learns that his brother Oliver tried to rig the wrestling match and is still a threat to him. Orlando has no choice but to flee the dukedom with a servant and hide in the Forest of Arden. At the same time, Duke Frederick decides he can no longer tolerate his brother’s daughter, Rosalind, and exiles her just as he exiled her father. But Celia will not let her beloved cousin go alone. The two young women decide to secretly leave together and hide where they will not be found. Escaping with them is the court fool, or jester, whose name is Touchstone. Rosalind is now disguised as a young man named Ganymede. Celia is now disguised as Ganymede’s sister, a shepherdess named Aliena. The two women and Touchstone make their way to the Forest of Arden. In the open fields within the forest they meet a shepherd named Silvius, who is suffering from unrequited love for the shepherdess Phoebe. Needing a place to live, Rosalind/Ganymede and Celia/Aliena are able to buy a simple cottage in the forest from a poor tenant named Corin. Elsewhere in the Forest of Arden, Orlando and his servant, Adam, find the exiled Duke Senior and his men. Orlando and Adam are welcomed as fellow exiles. Among Duke Senior’s men is Jaques, a sad and discontented figure who is pessimistic where most of the other characters are bright and hopeful. Thinking she is lost to him now that he is exiled, Orlando writes love poems to Rosalind and pins them to the trees. Then Ganymede finds the poems and soon finds Orlando. Ganymede offers to let Orlando woo him as if he were the real Rosalind – which Ganymede is, of course – so that Ganymede might teach Orlando how to get over his unrequited love for a woman he thinks he will never see again. This is where the romantic chaos begins. As with many of Shakespeare’s comedies, the humor comes from infatuated lovers falling for the wrong person – especially for someone in disguise. Silvius loves Phoebe, but she has fallen for Ganymede. Rosalind loves Orlando, who thinks she is Ganymede. Touchstone has fallen in love with a shepherdess, Audrey William, a shepherd, loves Audrey, but she leaves him for Touchstone. The confusion ends in an argument between Ganymede, Orlando, Silvius, and Phoebe. Ganymede ends the dispute by making Orlando swear to marry Rosalind when he finds her. Phoebe still wants to marry Ganymede, but agrees to settle for Silvius if she cannot have Ganymede. Back in the dukedom, Duke Frederick learns that the exiled Orlando and Rosalind – as well as Celia and Touchstone – all disappeared at the same time. He orders Oliver to go and find his brother Orlando. Summary too long...

• published: 03 Feb 2020
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