As You Like It
In the play, As You Like It, by William Shakespeare, there is an omnipresent theme of a pastoral life versus court life that permeates throughout the play and engulfs all the characters. This ubiquitous theme italicizes and exhibits the similarities and differences that court and pastoral life play on the characters that inhabit these surroundings and environment. Characters such as Duke Senior, Touchstone, and Corin play a major part in shedding light on the comparison of pastoral and court life, which help the readers more plainly discover the similarities and discrepancies of these two ways of life. In Act Two, Duke Senior presents his views of court life and that of pastoral life, which does a great deal in clearing up the gray areas in Shakespeare's readers' minds of the two very different lifestyles. Duke Senior engages in a discourse with his fellow brothers of exile and rhetorically questions them by saying, "Hath not old custom made this lif
As You Like It is a pastoral literature that thrives on the contrast between life in the city and life in the country. Often, it suggests that the oppressions of the city can be remedied by a trip into the country's therapeutic woods and fields, and that a person's sense of balance and rightness can be restored by conversations with uncorrupted shepherds and shepherdesses. This type of restoration, in turn, enables one to return to the city a better person, capable of making the most of urban life. Indeed, much healing is done in the forest-the lovesick are coupled with their lovers and the usurped duke returns to his throne-but Shakespeare reminds us that life in Ardenne is a temporary affair. As the characters prepare to return to life at court, the play does not laud country over city or vice versa, but instead suggests a delicate and necessary balance between the two. The simplicity of the forest provides shelter from the strains of the court, but it also creates the need for urban
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Approximate Word count = 667
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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