Essay - As You Like it One of William Shakespeare's More Accessible...

As You Like It

One of William Shakespeare's more accessible plays, As ***** Like ***** is a delightful romantic comedy that tickles audiences' hearts as much today as it did in Elizabethan England. The play's themes and characters cross conventional boundaries ***** gender, morality, and cl*****s. In fact, central to ***** You ***** It is a celebration of conflict, contrast, and contradiction. The trappings of courtly life are pitted against the peaceful simplicity of the pastoral; the ideals of romantic love and courtship st***** *****arkly removed from the realities of marriage. As You Like It contains many moments ***** family feuding, as ***** play opens with a double usurpation. After Sir Rowland DeBois dies, his estate was bequeathed to his eldest son, Oliver, as w***** the custom of ***** day. Oliver's selfish refusal to treat his younger brother Orlando with the respect he deserves causes much strife within the ***** that leads ***** a wrestling match and to the eventual banishment of Orlando ***** the forest. From the very beginning, ***** You ***** It captures the audience's attention with farce and folly, suspense and sobriety. A relatively short play, As You Like It is full ***** action and never fails to engage the reader with colorful characters that enmesh in a game of disguise ***** hidden identity, laying the groundwork for a gr*****nd matchmaking scheme that continues no matter what the consequences.

For most of the characters in ***** You Like It, love is a grand sport with wins, losses, and draws. In *****, in ***** very first Act, Celia tells her cousin and best friend Rosalind, "Marry, I pr'ythee, do, to make sport *****al," (I, ii, 22). Rosalind, the female protagonist ***** daughter of the banished Duke Senior, also agrees that falling in love is ak***** to a *****. These two women embark on a journey of deception ***** proves that *****y taken this definition of love ***** heart and put it into practice. Act One, scene two is replete with ***** entendres comparing love to sport because of the immanent wrestling match between a *****d Orlando and Charles, the court wrestler. The court jester, Touchstone chides Rosalind and Celia: "Thus men may grow wiser every *****! It is the first time / that ever I heard breaking of ribs was ***** for ladies," (I, ii, 109). Celia ***** Rosalind have a morbid fascination ***** the wrestling match, just as they both have a ***** fascination with the game of matchmaking.

The central theme of d*****guise makes its way ***** this early ***** in the play, too. Orlando, Oliver's younger ***** and surprise victor in the ***** match, fights under a false identity. The wrestl*****g scene t*****e*****e ***** elements of disguise and of excitement, which both continue throughout the play. Moreover, the figure of Touchstone the Jester adds the necessary color and confusion that ***** characterizes As You Like *****t.

K*****wing he is in grave danger following h***** unexpected victory against *****, Orlando flees to ***** Forest of Ardenne,