Theme of Pastoralism in Shakespeare’s as You Like It

William Shakespe bes As You the want It is plausibly cardinal of the most famous eclogue comedies of both times. Written around 1599 and produce in 1623, its plot was derived from Thomas bides pastoral romance Rosalynde. plainly what is interesting ab baffle this play is how Shakespe be, victimization the features and tropes of a pastoral comedy, undercuts the creative thinker of the pastoral. The pastoral, as a genre, can be acquit to retain had its beginnings with Theocritus Idylls. Other nonable whole kit in this genre are Virgils Eclogues and Longus Daphnis and Chloe. Artificiality and lack of realism are the mind characteristics of this tradition.When the Elizabethans wrote in this tradition, they more or less(prenominal) followed the set up conventions. The shepherds with which they tidy sumd their awkward adorn were metaphors for amorous lovers, scholar-poets and aristocrats in exile. These poets gave the primacy to butterflyiers who led a shepherd- d esire existence or merely set the agricultural environ workforcet as a background to the amours of shepherds and shepherdesses who in their love-behaviour resembled the refined noble-men of the judiciary. As You Like It as surface as has these love-lorn figures in characters much(prenominal) as Silvius and Phebe.Yet, it can be distinctly reassuren from their marginalized status in the play that Shakespeare has understandably de picked from the convention of pastoralisation of the head-mannered heap. 1. The people in Shakespeares pastoral are not the dainty shepherds and shepherdesses of the g anileen human. They are uneducated, plain-spoken, not much concerned with romance, verse and etiquette. The reason for this far- away(p)-from-reality portrayal of the country people in pastoral romances and poetry was the incident that the authors/poets were a part of a row belonging to the t throw and act.Their anxieties and pre-occupations with their own socio-politico-economi c conditions necessitated the plait of an idyllic space, free from tout ensemble the troubles and tensions. And it was to take this need to flying that they created an to the highest degree Eden- exchangeable rural humankind. The pastoral, t presentfore, became one of the literary forms best expensey for an expression of disgust with the court of law and an grasp for the simple pleasures of the country. 2. They say he is already in the afforest of Arden, and many a merry men with him and there they fit like the old Robin street fighter of England.They say many young gentlemen potty to him every day, and fleet the time rakishly as they did in the golden humanity, says Charles in travel 1, picture 1 of the play. This sure raises our expectations rough the timberland of Arden as a grade where life history is like a never- peculiaritying holiday. In Act 2, Scene 1, Duke Senior also describes the woodwind instrument as a moorage where he finds unsloped in everyt hing and compares it to the Garden of Eden. plainly in the very identical dialogue, he refers to the icy fang/ And sour c hide of the spends wind. This brings to our notice the less-than-perfect temper of life in Arden.Even when away from the strifes of courtly life, the courtiers and the duke have to bear the penalty of ex. Each of the character that enters the quality of Arden considers it as a refuge from the iniquity, restriction, oppression and turpitude of the life at court. Rosalind and Celia run away from the court to escape the patriarchal supremacy of the tyrant Duke Frederick. Orlando and Adam come to the tone in search of a clean life away from the in notwithstandingice meted out to him by his own pal. Duke Senior and his courtiers roost in the woodwind instrument as exiles, having been wronged at the hands of Duke Frederick.But purge here Shakespeare inverts this purpose by giving each one of them their percentage of trials and tribulations. It certainl y is not an escape into a utopian world as we would like it to be. Each of them reaches the Forest in a arouse of physical enfeeblement and it is not the end of their troubles, what with hunger, extreme last conditions and struggle for survival staring them in the face. The play also deals with the idea of old world- bleakfound world order and uses pastoral as a medium to resolve expert socio-political problems.The fellowship at this point in time was in a state of flux and the aristocracy came to be change integrity into 2 categories One that still set much store by the notions of short letter lineage, loyalty and a golden, feudal society where everyone knows his place and the other that adopted the Machiavellian idea of rampant individualism and f on the whole upon of power for selfish purposes. Shakespeare presents this split in the society in terms of familial conflict between Oliver and Orlando & Duke Senior and Duke Frederick.In denying Orlando his share in his fath ers fortune and mistreating Adam, Oliver violates the moral integrity of the tralatitious order which required the victor to fulfil the patriarchal commitment of ensuring a harmonious fellowly order on his estate. Sir Rowland de Boys is depicted as the epitome of the perfect lord. By virtue of world morally akin to his father, Orlando is loved by everyone. He embodies traditional values of the old feudal order, the antique world. Oliver, being all that his father was not is spokesperson of the new world order.Duke Frederick, similarly, is put in the identical moral category when he says, The world esteemed Sir Rowland honourable/But I did find him still mine enemy. not exactly this, he is an anomaly in the law of primogeniture because he overthrows the just inheritor, Duke Senior, who also loves Sir Rowland and thusly we hold him in the same light as Orlando. Oliver violates moral law, Duke Frederick violates friendly law. It is in the Forest of Aden that this violati on is rectify and we see the ultimate re-uniting of the Orlando and Oliver when the wronged younger brother saves the life of the very elder brother who had plotted to kill him.And it is after unveiling the Forest that Duke Frederick realises his folly in usurping the rightful aim of his brother and Duke Senior is thus reinstated as the king. The Forest, more importantly the idea of countryside, then works as a place which provides resolution to the conflicts and restores harmony. There is a constant contrast being cadaverous between the court and the country in the play which undoubtedly presents the country as a better and superior alternative.The dismiss by the characters into the Forest of Arden is seen as a den into nature where they are physically and spiritually rejuvenated. It is also a computer address of learning for the Duke Senior, for he Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks/Sermons in stones, and good in everything. Their stay in the Forest re-ins tils a ace of confidence in them and they also acquire a stop of self-knowledge. But in spite of this glory of the country we do not see even one character that tout ensemble identifies with it.The pastoral is just a acting(prenominal) refuge and never a unchanging haven. As short as the familial and social conflicts are resolved, the inhabitants reach the place about which they had eulogised. In Act 1, Scene 1, talking to Adam about Olivers unjust behaviour towards him, Orlando describes his gentility against the everydayness of the country people. In saying You have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities, Orlando gives vent to an inherent prejudice against the country folks as merciless people.Even when in the Forest, Orlando thinks of the country dwellers as incapable of any civility and the prejudice in him remains intact when he says I thought that all things had been savage here. Duke Senior refers to his days at court as better days with an unmixed sense of nostalgia in the same purview and draws a contrast between the great life at court and the almost anarchical existence in the Forest when he recalls the holy bell that knolled to perform/ And when he sat at good mens feasts. This distinction between the court and country is brought out most tellingly in the characters of Touchstone and Corin.Touchstones interpretation of himself as a courtier not only parodies the courtiers and their ways but also provides a contrast with the simplicity of Corin, representative of the rural fraternity. We notice a misplaced sense of elitism and superiority seeping in in the behaviour of Touchstone as soon as he enters the Forest when he calls out to Corin as you clown in Act 2, Scene 5 and refers to himself as his betters. The conversation between the two in Act 3, Scene 2 shows the oscitance fissures that separated the two classes and precluded any chance of a democratic exchange of ideas. 3.Touchstone s answer to Corins inquiry about his feelings for shepherd life underlines the conventions of the pastoral life- Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself it is a good life but in respect that it is a shepherds life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well but in respect that it is private, it is a very anxious life. Now, in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. Corin himself continues this realistic tone when he points out the obvious differences between life in the court and life in the country.The best truce between the two diametrically opposite worlds comes in Corins sagacious analysis- Those that are good dexterity at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court thus sanctioning that one place is not necessarily better than the other, just different. The family that the court people establish with the Forest and the forest-dwel lers is almost exploitative in nature. Despite being away from the court physically, they can never really leave behind the court mannerisms and prejudices.We see a new court order being established in the Forest. The Duke and his courtiers are refugees in the forest, but still they become tyrants and usurpers of the place rightfully belonging to the inhabitants. They kill the animals, the natives i. e. , for their own convenience and pleasure. Broken feudal loyalties are strengthened when Duke Sr. jibes Orlando and recognises him to be the son of his favourite, Sir Rowland. We see the creation of a social hierarchy when Rosalind and Celia, by virtue of their socio-economic position in the society, enter into a bloodline arrangement with Corin and offer to buy his land. Although, he is a native of the Forest and should be economically prosperous, going by the conventions of the pastoral, we are informed that he does not even shear the fleeces he grazes and is servant to a churlish master. Thus unlike the traditional pastoral relationship between the courtier and shepherds which is that of pleasing equality, in Shakespeares play the shepherd can only become a host to the ladies by becoming their servant. . more or less critics have also read this encroachment of the rights of the natives as a critique of the systemic enclosure of the commons in seventeenth century England. As mentioned earlier, the retreat into the Forest is not an escape into a utopian world. Rather than simply being an idyllic, destitute site to escape to, Arden is constructed as a neutral space where people are allowed to be themselves, free to create leaf identities and perhaps this is from where the title of the play, As You Like It, derives. 5.Each character that enters the Forest projects his own spirit on to it. So turn Duke Sr finds it to be idyllic golden world, almost Eden-like, Orlando calls it desert inaccessible. Rosalind and Celia meet a pleasant sheepcote fenced with c hromatic trees on entering the Forest while Oliver is greeted by a snake with drawn fangs and a lioness ready to kill him. So a retreat into Arden can be seen as a metaphor for the retreat into ones soul. It becomes the mirror of their minds, reflecting their thoughts onto their situations.Rosalind and Celia escape the unpleasant and dependant atmosphere of the court and don new identities in the Forest. While Celia chooses the name Aliena, representative of her state of mind, Rosalind forges an altogether new individuation for herself by choosing to dress up like a man as Ganymede. By doing this, Rosalind draws upon the latent courage and resilience of her character. She becomes a working woman, independent of all antheral control, something which the orderly and patriarchal world of the court would not have permitted.A subversion of the sex stereotypes is also happening in the relationship of Orlando and Rosalind in the Forest where Orlando roams about looking for her and ins cribing eulogies as proof of his love for Rosalind on tree barks and she tests his love in the robes of Ganymede. Orlando, whom we had seen as a man who knows his deserving and potential but is unable to body forth it due to his situation in society, transforms into a most ardent lover as he is given the freedom to express his love. The loyal courtier in him is accorded its true worth when Duke Sr recognises him as the son of Sir Rowland de Boys.Thus the launch into Forest can also be seen as a symbolic call for to determine ones identity. In so far as all the action of the play takes place in the Forest of Arden, it is of prime importance. But as we have noticed, the retreat into Arden is not a permanent move on the part of the court dwellers. The stay in the Forest is a means to and not the end itself, the end being resolution of all social and familial conflicts. And Shakespeare very well uses the pastoral tradition to achieve this resolution.