This Month's As You Like It Essay >>

Scene i: Another city scene creates a second juxtaposition between the two dukes. While Duke Senior is merciful and helpful to Orlando, Duke Frederick is tyrannical and threatening to Oliver in this scene. Despite his comment that he is "the better part made mercy," he seizes Oliver's lands and money and threatens his life if he does not deliver Orlando within a year (l. 2). When Oliver tells him that he never loved his brother, Duke Frederick criticizes him by stating that the lack of love makes him more loathsome: "More villain thou" (l. 15). This statement is purely hypocritical, as Duke Frederick clearly lacks love for his own brother, which, by his own estimation, makes him even more of a villain as well. However, Oliver's tyranny is limited to Orlando while Duke Frederick's affects an entire kingdom.

Scene ii: This lengthy scene covers the themes of country/city life and love. In the first part of the scene, Orlando is hanging some badly written love poems to Rosalind on trees. This is typical of lovers, and Rosalind is immediately acquainted with the fact that Orlando returns her affections. However, this will not deter her from fully investigating the depth of Orlando's affections. After displaying her wit to Orlando through her discussion of the passage of Time (which passes differently depending upon point of view), Rosalind offers to "cure" Orlando of his love by pretending to be Rosalind so that he can see the folly of woman. The idea here is that by exposing him to the inconsistency of the "touched" (tainted) feminine mind, he will be cured of love's "madness." However, Shakespeare does not intend his audiences to believe that women are so ridiculous because Rosalind is, after all, female, and most certainly not absurd.

Rosalind's approach to Orlando's love seems to be in agreement with Jaques' opinions on the subject. Jaques ridicules Orlando for his love of Rosalind and the multitude of poems left on trees. However, Jaques clearly does not completely dislike Orlando because he asks Orlando to sit with him and rail against their fates. This is because, despite his fawning love for Rosalind, Orlando demonstrates his own wit in this scene by cleverly answering Jaques' questions and by recognizing that Jaques is indeed a fool. Thus, like the "Seven Ages of Man" speech, Jaques' observations on love are not meant to be taken seriously.

Orlando is not the only one affected by love in this scene. While Rosalind manages to fool Orlando and convince him to play her game, she is also silly when it comes to her love. When Rosalind reads the various poems left by Orlando, she does not mind the bad verses, even though she criticizes them to Touchstone and Celia. Rosalind blushes when she discusses Orlando with Celia, and demands to know what Orlando looked like, what he said, where he was, etc., when Celia mentions that she saw him. When Celia tries to tell her, Rosalind keeps interrupting excitedly, another typical action for someone in love. While Rosalind will often make fun of love throughout the play, the fun is ironic, as Rosalind knows that she is love's fool just as much as any of the characters in the play.

The other section of this scene continues the country/city dichotomy. When Corin asks Touchstone how he enjoys being a shepherd, Touchstone praises and criticizes it for its simplicity. All of the advantages of country life (its solitary nature, its location, and its sparseness) are, according to Touchstone, also its disadvantages. This statement summarizes the entire point of the country/city theme of the play—both have their advantages and disadvantages, and anyone who does not recognize this is a fool. However, although Touchstone makes this witty and wise observation, he does not, as Rosalind has pointed out before, understand his own wisdom. Touchstone's attitude in this scene (and throughout the play) is that he is superior to the shepherds in the play because he is from the city and, therefore, more sophisticated, despite acknowledging the advantages of country life. He tries to prove this by attempting to outwit Corin in conversation in this scene, but Corin stands firm by reminding Touchstone that he earns his own way, owes no one anything, and is generally happy.

Scene iii: Touchstone's foolishness is revealed by Jaques' criticisms in this scene. In his conversation with Audrey, Touchstone uses his wit to establish his superiority over her "country" simplicity by wishing that she were "poetical"—a concept that Audrey is not familiar with. Jaques, however, identifies Touchstone's attitudes as foolish and makes fun of them at several points in the scene. Touchstone's superior attitude is also evident in his use of Oliver Mar-Text, who as a questionable priest may provide Touchstone with the excuse to leave Audrey later by claiming that the marriage is illegal. Fortunately for Audrey, Jaques prevents this by persuading Touchstone to listen to his counsel.

Scene iv: Rosalind shows her ability to pine away because of love in this scene. When Orlando is late to their "lesson," Rosalind wants to cry. She then calls him a traitor and is hurt when Celia suggests that he might not be in love with her anymore because he is young and silly. Rosalind is so involved with her feelings for Orlando that she does not even wish to discuss her father, whom she went into the forest to look for. However, despite her sadness, Rosalind is not completely consumed by her feelings, and decides to "play a part" in the scene about to unfold between Silvius and Phebe.

Scene v: Rosalind demonstrates her power to manipulate others because she is a man in this scene. When Phebe rejects Silvius' pathetic advances, Rosalind recognizes that Silvius loves Phebe because she rejects him, and that Phebe will probably be attracted by rejection as well. This observation proves to be correct, and Phebe quickly falls in love with Ganymede (Rosalind). She even goes so far as to use Silvius to bear a love letter to Ganymede, despite the cruelty of such an action. This type of love, which is inspired by cruelty and quickly becomes obsession, is unhealthy and brings misery, as we have seen with Silvius. Although Rosalind will manipulate the situation so that Silvius will eventually marry Phebe, there is little hope that their marriage will be a happy one.