Close Reading As You Like It

     In Act 5, Scene 2 of the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare, there is a lot to closely read when you are closely reading it. The play is a pastoral comedy about the daughter of an exiled duke. Her name is Rosalind, and she turns her banishment from her villainous uncle into an opportunity to educate her beloved Orlando in the affairs of love, and to reunite with her father. In this particular scene in the play, Rosalind (in disguise as Ganymede), Orlando, Phoebe, Silvius, and Oliver attempt to work out various romantic and unromantic difficulties, while the prospect of at least one wedding is hanging over them. While I was closely reading this scene, I focused a lot on the character relationships and how the characters explain their feelings to one another in a way that involves a ton of double meanings. While I explored this, I examined the text through lenses of word choice, power and resistance, and other miscellaneous subjects.
    In Act 5, Scene 2 of the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare, it begins with a brief dialogue between the two brothers Orlando and Oliver. This itself had a lot to examine. Oliver is begging his brother Orlando to give him permission to marry a girl he met named "Aliena," who is really Celia, Rosalind's cousin and best friend. Orlando questions, almost interrogates, Oliver about this idea, seeming not to trust his judgment. Orlando says "Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you should like her?" Orlando seems to be disbelieving that love can happen so fast. He asks Oliver many, many questions before he finally consents. I tried to figure out why Orlando was being so difficult. I think it's because Orlando is actually jealous of his brother. Orlando is in love with Rosalind, and he thinks they may never meet again, while at the same time Oliver and his beloved are all set to go get married. I think it is very realistic for Orlando to be feeling this way, and that this sort of jealousy between siblings is not uncommon. Oliver, on the other hand, seems so deeply infatuated with "Aliena" that he actually swallows his pride and begs Orlando to let him marry. Oliver does this by saying "...Consent with both that we may enjoy each other." When this doesn't seem to be enough, he throws in a bribe, saying "It shall be to your good, for my father's house and all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's will I estate upon you..." For Oliver as a character, this is a change, considering that he never wanted to share any of his father's wealth with Orlando till this point. I observed that it is also against tradition for Oliver to be asking Orlando for permission, considering that Oliver is the older brother and therefore should not need his little brother's blessing. When I tried to explain this, I thought that this is partially because Orlando did save Oliver's life, so Oliver feels a certain amount of respect for him. I also thought this is because Oliver knows that Orlando is having love problems of his own, and possibly feels a little bad that things are working out so well for him.
     In Act 5, Scene 2 of the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare, the next character relationship that I really focused on is the relationship between Orlando and Rosalind in the part of the scene when it is just the two of them talking. At this point, Rosalind and Orlando are discussing the upcoming marriage between Oliver and "Aliena," and at the end of it Ganymede/Rosalind says she can help Orlando and his beloved Rosalind get married. Rosalind does most of the talking at this point in the scene. I observed that most of her dialogue is rather playful, yet a little more emotional than sometimes. She starts the dialogue by saying "O my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf." She's playing with him here, because she is pretending to be a man (Ganymede) who's pretending to be Rosalind. She's purposefully being overly dramatic. However, I'm not convinced she's acting here as much as in some other scenes. We know that she was really worried about Orlando when he got injured by a lioness, so I think this bit of speech actually contains some genuine concern. Even though Orlando doesn't really voice it, I was thinking that maybe he sensed that actual concern was in her words and wondered for a moment if this "Ganymede" was actually his Rosalind. If so, Rosalind's next line would indicate that she picked up on his notion, when she says "Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon when he showed me your handkercher?" She's trying to remind him that she is really a guy (even though she's not) and that this is all just a game of pretend which she is utilizing to "cure him of his lovesickness." Rosalind talks about Oliver and "Aliena" for a bit, and then she brings up this concept that she can "do strange things" (that she's a magician) and that she can make Rosalind appear before Orlando so he can marry her. While this is again said mischievously with a bit of a twinkle in her eye, she throws in a challenge to him that it's hard to tell if he picks up on. She says "If you do love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it out, when your brother marries Aliena shall you marry her." She's testing to see if all this playing around has actually benefitted him, and if he's ready to commit and marry her. Orlando, as I said before, barely talks in this part. The things he say give off a sense of disbelief (like with Oliver) but also this sense of wonder and admiration. One of these such lines is "Speak'st thou in sober meanings?" (He says this when she says she will make it so that he and Rosalind will be married.) I think he really admires this "Ganymede," and whether he knows that this is actually Rosalind or not (that is debatable) he seems grateful for all "he" is doing for him. The power in the scene is obviously Rosalind/Ganymede, but I don't think Orlando really minds, which is why he doesn't resist. He is so dumbfounded by Rosalind's remarkableness that at this point in the play, he seems almost worried that if he challenges her theories, he will lose everything.
     Finally, in Act 5, Scene 2 of the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare, there are the complex character relationships between Rosalind, Orlando, Silvius, and Phoebe that are demonstrated at the end of the scene. This is the part where Rosalind gets these three to agree to marry a certain significant other the following day. For the Phoebe and Rosalind relationship, the two of them are certainly not friendly. When Phoebe says to Rosalind "Youth, you have done me much ungentleness. To show the letter I writ to you," Rosalind replies "I care not if I have." Phoebe is a selfish brat, and since she is not used to getting her way (ex: with Silvius) Rosalind's rejection of her makes her very, very angry. Rosalind tries to use her imaginary manliness to be tough with Phoebe, but really, she is just trying to avoid marrying a woman without having to break Phoebe's heart. The power dynamic between them is complicated, but I actually think they're evenly matched, with each resisting the other. Rosalind may seem in control of the conversation, but really, she is quite powerless because she cannot tell Phoebe who (and what) she really is without ruining the whole charade. Between Rosalind and Orlando, the dynamic is mainly the same. Rosalind does, at one point, get a bit irritated with Orlando. This is when Silvius accuses Phoebe of blaming him for loving her, Phoebe repeats it, and lastly Orlando does too. Then Rosalind says to Orlando "Why do you speak too, 'Why blame you me to love you?'" I tried to figure out why she explodes at him, and what I came up with is that she's actually a bit hurt when he accuses her (even though he doesn't know it's her) of being too harsh on him. She feels slightly guilty, realizing that maybe she has been too hard on him. The power between Phoebe and Silvius is obviously in the hands of Phoebe. She orders him about, saying "Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love." Notice that she says "good" shepherd, when just a few scenes ago he was in fact "dead" shepherd. She definitely knows how to manipulate him, and Silvius never resists her. In fact, he really just buys into it by being the ringleader of the "and so I am for Phoebe/Ganymede/Rosalind" chant amongst others. Rosalind and Silvius don't really talk to each other directly during this scene, but the overall relationship between them seems to be that Rosalind pities him. Silvius doesn't seem to despise Rosalind for being the apple of Phoebe's eye, either.
     To conclude, in Act 5, Scene 2 of As You Like It by William Shakespeare, I closely read while focusing on the complex relationships between characters. From reading this section of the play, I learned that characters often say something when they actually mean something utterly different, which is why we have to closely read. I also learned that the power dynamic between characters can be far more complicated than meets the eye. And at the heart of many of these relationships is some sort of conflict that has to do with love. This seems to be true in the real world too, when everyday people say things they don't mean, when you say "I hate you" to your parents when you have a fight, even though you don't mean it. Or, like Phoebe, we are sometimes nice to someone just because we want something out of them, not because we really mean it. Rosalind in particular says all sorts of things she doesn't mean, which is ultimately because she is playing a game where she's pretending to be someone she's not. Don't we do that in our lives too? I think so. Yet sometimes, like Rosalind did, we let a little bit of what we really mean slip through, and even if it might not seem like it, we often want the person to pick up on it so they can put the pieces together.