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| Shakespeare, William: As you like it
Shakespeare, William: As you like it
Literaturwissenschaftliches
Proseminar
Dr. Williamson
WS 1997/98
The use of the imagery of archetypes in
Shakespeare’s As you like
it
Verena Kischer :
a9504537@unet.univie.ac.at
Matrikelnummer: 9504537
Table of
Contents
1. Introduction
........................................................................ 1
- The archetype in Jaques’ speech
of
‘Seven stages in a man’s life’
............................................ 3
2.1. Orlando - the
archetypal character
........................... 4
2.2. Oliver - an
archetypal character?
............................. 7
3. Jaques’ speech - a
charicature ......................................... 8
4. Conclusion
......................................................................... 9
5. Bibliography
...................................................................... 11
6. Index
.................................................................................. 13
1.Introduction
Characters have always been and still are the focal
point of every play. This is not surprising, since it is they who make up the
whole story. Judging by the way they talk and gesticulate, they do not only
determine their own personality but they also develop the plot, the social
context, the atmosphere and the theme of the whole play.
Language is the most important factor, when it comes
to identifying and analysing a certain character type. The picture that we, as
the reader, get of a character is, on the one hand, a reflection of what he
says, and, on the other hand, of how he says it. This will become clear if we
look at the opening scene of As you like it. Here, Orlando complains in
an inexorable stream of words about his upbringing - if he has had one at all -,
in which he was treated like the black sheep of the family.
He keeps me rustically at home, or,
to speak more
properly, stays me here at home
unkept...His horses
are better bred, for, besides that
they are fair with
their feeding, they are taught
their manage. (1.1. 6-11)
This extract from Orlando’s first speech is
‘a shout of protest.’ (Doebler, 111) In twenty-three lines Orlando
gives vent to his wrath, a wrath he has choked back for much too long. He tries
to portray himself as an uneducated and foolish person, a person who has been
kept like a menial. Yet, it is made quite clear to the reader that this is not
the case at all. Orlando draws a parallel with his brother’s cattle, thus,
becoming aware of the fact that even the horses and oxen are superior to him,
for ‘they are taught their manage.’ (1.1. 11) Orlando chooses here
the word ‘manage’, a technical term that derives from the French
word ‘manege’ (Shakespeare, Commentary) referring to the action and
paces to which a horse is trained in the riding-school, particularly for
military purposes.
Orlando expresses himself in such a sophisticated
manner, which a person who had not obtained a good education would have never
been able to do. But it is not only the choice of words used that suggest that
Orlando is actually far from being reduced to the state of an animal, but it is
the length of this passage as well. Orlando does not get rid of his anger by
simply throwing together a few sentences - I am so stupid. I have never
had a good education, for which I loathe my brother
-, but he does that in a much more round-about and sophisticated manner.
This can be easily exemplified by looking at the individual sentences of this
first speech. No matter which one we pick out, every single one is at least four
lines long.
Besides this nothing that
he so plentifully gives me, the
something that nature gave
me his countenance seems
to take from me: he lets me
feed with his hinds, bars me
the place of a brother,
and, as much as in him lies, mines
my gentility with my
education. (1.1. 15-19)
All that Orlando states within these five lines is
the fact that his brother denies him everything he is actually entitled to. But
he did not need 49 words to say so.
By looking at the language Orlando uses, the reader
can surmise that, despite his lack of formal education, he is very well aware of
formal manners and is by no means as uneducated as he takes himself for. This
assumption that the reader makes right at the very beginning of the play is also
confirmed by his brother Oliver. In a soliloquy Oliver broaches the subject that
he ‘hates nothing more than he [Orlando]. Yet he is gentle, never schooled
and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly beloved.’
(1.1. 154-59) Since a soliloquy is a monologue that conveys a character’s
thoughts or other information to the audience whilst no other characters are on
stage, we can assume his speech to be credible. Thus, the reader does not place
his trust in Orlando by taking everything he says for granted. It is the
language Orlando uses that reveals his personality.
This is one way of analysing a character’s
personality. Another way, one that complements the first one, occurs by means of
expectations. This simply means that we already have a pre-conceived notion or
idea in our minds of how a certain character should behave, act, etc. This is
based on our personal experience as well as on the force of habit. We have
learned that, in a play, a whole range of characters exist which are all
organised in a particular pattern. There is the protagonist of the play, a
young, beautiful, innocent person. Then a mean, wicked scoundrel known as
antagonist, a brave soldier, a foolish lover, a lonesome father, an uneducated
fool, etc. We all have an idea of how these types of characters ought to behave.
In other words, we place them in different categories, where each category
represents one prototype, one archetype.
- The archetype in Jaques’ speech of
‘Seven stages in a
man’s life’
An archetype is ‘the original pattern or model
from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are
based.’ (Flexner, s.v. archetype) Now, archetypes do not only occur in the
fictitious world of a play in the form of certain character patterns, but they
are also present in real life. Jaques, the second Son of Sir Rowland the Boys,
realises that every human being has to pass through various stages in life, each
of which has an archetypal function, i.e. in each phase of life we are expected
to behave in a certain, almost inescapable manner. This, Jaques brings home to
the reader in a vivid description of ‘the seven stages in a man’s
life.’
And all the world’s a
stage,
And all the men and women merely
players;
They have their exits and their
entrances,
And one man in his time plays
many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the
infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s
arms;
Then, the whining schoolboy, with his
satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like
snail
Unwillingly to school; and then the
lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful
ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow; then
a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like
the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in
quarrel,
Seeking the bubble
reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth; and then,
the justice,
In fair round belly, with good capon
lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal
cut,
Full of wise saws and modern
instances,
And so he plays his part; the sixth age
shifts
Into the lean and slippered
pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on
side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too
wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly
voice,
Turning again toward childish treble,
pipes
And whistles in his sound; last Scene of
all,
That ends this strange eventful
history,
Is second childishness, and mere
oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything.
(2.7. 140-167)
Jaques sees life as a stage-play with seven acts, each
act representing an important phase in life. Stage one, he describes as infancy,
followed by stage two defined as childhood. In stage three we find the sighing
lover and in stage four the swearing soldier. Stage five deals with man
following a profession, stage six with man at an advanced age and, finally,
stage seven, with man in the last stages of life. This system is clearly laid
out and represents a kind of order in our lives. Everyone of us has to undergo
these changes, one after the other, and no matter which one we think of, a
certain idea associated with this particular stage enters our
head.
In stage four, for instance, comes ‘the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’
eyebrow;’ (2.7. 148-150). This is exactly the stage, Orlando and Oliver
are in, with the only difference being that in the case of Orlando it becomes
obvious right at the very beginning of the play.
- Orlando, the archetypal character
Orlando is a good-looking¹ young man, who is head over heels in love. Due
to a fatal intrigue of his brother Oliver, he has to leave the court to seek his
fortune elsewhere, and he does so with fearless bravery and boldness. Upon
arriving in the Forest of Arden, Orlando hangs poems in praise of his beloved
Rosalynd on trees. After a short game of disguise, which Rosalynd initiates in
order to put Orlando’s love to a test, they get happily married.
Throughout the play Orlando behaves in every
possible way how we, having this archetypal concept of stage four of
Jaque’s speech in mind, would expect him to. But let us look at the way in
which he fulfils this expected archetypal pattern in more detail.
As I remember, Adam, it
was upon this fashion bequeathed
me by will, but poor a
thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest,
charged my brother on his
blessing to breed me well;
(1.1.
1-4.)
This first speech by Orlando, who is the
romantic hero of the play, is the
opening scene of Shakespeare’s As you
like it. Upon reading the first four
¹ Rosalynd indicates that Orlando has not
only defeated his component Charles, but that
his charm and good-looks have
’overthrown’ (1.2. 243) her as well.
lines, the reader finds himself situated right in the
middle of the story of the two brothers. Shakespeare did not start off with a
lengthy description of how Sir Rowland de Boys’ death came about, but
plunged right into the action. In other words, he started in medias res.
So, all we get to know is that Orlando was supposed to obtain a thousand
crowns from his father which his elder brother keeps for himself. It is merely
due to Orlando reaching manhood that he realises that he has to do something
about his miserable situation, for he has been treated unfairly and unjustly by
his brother Oliver. Whereas Jaques, the third son of Sir Rowland the Boys, has
had the pleasure of obtaining a good education, Orlando has not. The latter was
kept ‘rustically at home’ in a manner ‘that differs not from
the stalling of an ox.’ (1.1. 6-10) He was exploited
by the ‘older
generation’ in the person of an eldest
brother. Ever since the
death of their father Oliver
has treated Orlando
shamelessly, denying him a
relevant education by
setting him to mindless tasks.
(Doebler, 111)
Orlando recalls that even the horses and the oxen
led a better life and that all he basically gets from his brother, is the right
to grow.
But Orlando is not at all the uneducated and foolish
backwoodsman he sees in himself. He is the more noble one and, despite less
power, the stronger one, according to Ornstein, the one with ‘chivalric
manliness.’ (Ornstein, 148) This reveals itself in two ways: physical
strength as well as moral courage.
Orlando’s physical strength becomes visible to
the reader in many instances. The first two and most obvious ones are when
Orlando fights with Oliver, on the one hand, and with Duke Frederick’s
wrestler Charles, on the other hand. He defeats both of them. In the quarrel
with Oliver, Orlando ‘seizes him by the throat.’ (1.1. 50) When
Oliver utters ‘Let me go, I say’ (1.1. 61), we know that Oliver has
won. As far as the wrestling with Charles is concerned, Orlando’s strength
becomes even more visible to the reader. When Rosalynd encourages Orlando with
the words ‘Now Hercules be thy speed, young man!’ (1.2. 197), she
invokes the typical archetype of strength, namely Hercules. Since the reader
sympathises with Orlando, he is very likely to equip him with
‘Hercules-like’ features and as we find out a few lines later, the
strength of Hercules has been really applied to Orlando. When Duke Frederick
shouts ‘Bear him away’ (1.1. 208), we know that Charles is
defeated.
In the Forest of Arden Orlando also displays his
bravery. When Orlando and Adam have arrived in the forest, Adam is exhausted and
extremely weak from lack of food. Without hesitation Orlando threatens to kill
Duke Senior and his followers - ‘He dies that touches any of this
fruit’ (2.7. 99) -, who are sitting around a table, just about to have
something to eat.
Finally, Orlando, who had found Oliver sleeping in the
wood, does not even recoil from defending him from a lioness. Oliver recounts
that ‘kindness, nobler ever than revenge, And nature, stronger than his
just occasion, Made him give battle to the lioness.’ (4.3. 129-131) That
this undertaking was extremely dangerous becomes clear, since Oliver does not
mention a weapon in his report. This leads to the assumption that Orlando must
have killed the lioness with his bare hands. He even wounded himself.
‘Here upon his arm The lioness had torn some flesh away, Which all this
while had bled.’ (4.3. 147-149)
But Orlando’s physical courage is matched by a
moral courage, which is especially evident at the very beginning of the play.
Here he stands up to his brother by giving vent to his feelings. For so many
years he had not dared to fight back against all injustice that had been done to
him. But finally, he builds up enough courage and defends himself.
I am no villain: I am the
youngest son of Sir Rowland the Boys;
he was my father, and he is
thrice a villain that says such a
father begot villains. Wert
thou not my brother, I would not take
this hand from thy throat till
this other had pulled out thy tongue
for saying so; thou hast
railed on thyself. (1.1. 53-58)
Orlando also shows moral courage when he garnishes
the forest tress with the most ridiculous love poems without letting a single
tree be spared. He totally ignores Jaques, who pokes fun at his writings.
‘I pray you, mar no more trees with writing love- songs in their
barks.’ (3.2. 253) In spite of having less power, Orlando is the stronger
one, strong in both senses: physically and mentally.
In the course of the play Orlando’s courage
and his love to Rosalynd are constantly put to the test, but he manages to
tackle all kinds of tasks so perfectly well, just as we would expect from a
lover. Initially, he is confronted with sheer insoluble problems, but due to his
courage and boldness, his faith and love, finally, everything takes a turn for
the better and there is no obstacle to a marriage. In other words, Orlando
‘represents all that is virtuous in opposition to all that is
corrupt.’ (Doebler, 117)
2.2. Oliver - an archetypal character?
Oliver, by contrast, is sly and crafty. When
Charles expresses his fear that Orlando might be hurt in the fight, Oliver fires
back that Orlando is ‘the stubbornest young fellow of France’ (1.1.
132-33) and, what is more, ‘a villainous contriver against me, his natural
brother.’ (1.1. 135) He also makes Charles believe that if Orlando does
not gain honour at Charles’ expense by defeating him, he will keep at him
until he is dead.
For if thou dost him any
slight disgrace, or if he do
not mightily grace himself
on thee, he will practise
against thee by poison,
entrap thee by some treacherous
device, and never leave
thee till he hath ta’en thy life
by some indirect means or
other. (1.1. 138-44)
With this act of cunning, Oliver wants Orlando to be
assassinated. The one and only reason why Oliver behaves so unnaturally towards
his brother is because he is terribly afraid that Orlando might put one over on
him, for Oliver is obsessed with wealth and power. It is he, after all, who has
a hold over their father’s inheritance and he does not see why he should
split up his fortune amongst others. Oliver is such an unscrupulous tyrant,
occupied with the issue of power, that he does not even possess an ounce of
warm-heartedness.
The selfishness and lust for power that prevail in
Oliver are, however, his downfall. When Duke Frederick sends him off to seek
Orlando, the self-destructive nature of Oliver’s qualities is shown. Upon
telling the Duke that ‘[he] never loved...[his] brother in...[his]
life’ (3.1. 14), the Duke answers ‘More villain thou’ (3.1.
15) and orders his officers to ‘turn...[Oliver] going.’ (3.1.
18)
In the case of Oliver we are not dealing with a
harmonious kind of character, since he violates our preconceived idea of the
‘ideal lover’ by ‘leaving the track.’ His malice and
viciousness destroy the whole harmony, the whole order of the play, which leaves
behind an uneasy feeling with the reader.
Even though Oliver and Orlando are brothers, they
have distinct personalities and it is not until the very end that Oliver becomes
aware of his evil personality and mends his ways. This happens by means of
conversion. When Orlando goes to great length to rescue his brother from a
lioness, there is nothing to stop the reconciliation of the two brothers, during
which Oliver undergoes a change of heart. So, the character change that takes
place in Oliver - as well as in Duke Frederick - is a sudden one, with no
preceding inner struggle or self-doubt.
In the twinkling of an eye,
Oliver is converted
from being a murderous,
avaricious scoundrel
with no redeeming
characteristics into a pleasant
and acceptable husband for
Celia. (Muir, 88)
All of a sudden Oliver is converted and just as
quickly falls in love with Celia, Rosalynd’s cousin and Duke
Frederick’s daughter. The reader can finally breathe a sigh of relief,
when the treacherous and ungrateful tyrant has found his way back to where he
belongs.
3. Jaques’ speech -
a caricature
Jaques is
the only one who realises that life does not always take its normal course,
neither in the fictitious world of a play nor in real life. In his speech, which
is a caricature, he states that, though certain archetypal patterns are imposed
on every individual, he does not believe in the existence of an archetypal
character, since ‘every single character...is as much an individual as
those in Life (sic!) itself; it’s impossible to find any two alike.’
(Popper, 25) This becomes quite clear when we look at Jaques’ speech,
which ridicules man’s preposterous behaviour.
Instead of waxing
stronger...and flourishing biologically,
the babe pukes up his
milk. Instead of delighting in his
increasing mastery of his
intellectual (letters), artistic (lyre),
and physical (wrestling)
powers, the schoolboy creeps
unwillingly to...[school].
Instead of getting a wife with child,
the lover expends his
sexual vigor in sighs and woeful ballading.
Instead of successful
military conquest, the soldier is suicidally
obsessed with personal
honour and is futilely bellicose and
quarrelsome. Instead of
being a productive and effective public
and private citizen,
economical in the original Aristotelian sense,
[man] is an epicurean
justice vain of his apophthegms and the
cut of his beard. The old
man...is now incapable of any kind of
activity: educational,
sexual, martial, the regulative and
providential activity of
the active man. At the end he is able to do
nothing. (Allen,
340-41)
Every stage described has an extremely negative
connotation leaving no place for joy or happiness.
Yet, in the play, the speech is juxtaposed by
dramatic events that show that some characters contradict Jaques’ speech.
Let us take Adam, for instance. He would perfectly fit into this sixth pattern,
a ‘lean and slippered pantaloon...his youthful hose, well saved, a world
too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice...pipes And whistles in
his sound.’ (2.7. 159-64) Yet, this old servant does not resemble this
described pattern at all. Though he ‘look[s] old, yet...[he is]...strong
and lusty.’ (2.3. 47) He proves his courage by offering Orlando his whole
fortune of 500 crowns - ‘I have five hundred crowns...Take that.’
(2.3. 38;43) - and by accompanying him to the Forest of Arden, leaving a secure
life behind. ‘Let me go with you.’ (2.3.53), Adam says.
Real life, however, is not like a romance with a
happy ending, but in real life the archetypal pattern is hardly ever fulfilled.
And that is what Jaques wants us to become aware of, namely that people are
puzzling, inscrutable human beings, each of whom is an individual.
4.
Conclusion
In the previous chapters I have been trying to
comment on two important points that follow from Jaques’
speech:
Firstly, I wanted to prove that in
every piece of fictitious art the characters are organised in a particular
pattern, a pattern that we, as the reader, are totally aware of. This is
necessary, since the reader is already used to a certain characterisation, which
(s)he feels comfortable with. In the case of As you like it, I chose
Orlando to illustrate how he fulfils the archetypal function that is inflicted
on him. He shows courage, boldness as well as strength.
Oliver, however, violates his
pattern from the very beginning onwards. He tries to deviate from the role which
the reader believes he should act out. But in the end he cannot help but give in
and he does so almost unconsciously. It just happens to him. This is simply
because a play and its characters have to stick to certain
conventions.
Secondly, I pointed out that Jaques
is very well aware of the importance of the archetypal patterns, since they put
the reader at ease and make his life much more comfortable. But Jaques also
realises that in real life it is sheer impossible to conform to this expected
pattern. This he brings home to the reader by ridiculing every single stage in
life. He shows that human beings are inscrutable. That is why we always have to
be prepared for new changes, since ‘we know what we are, but know not what
we may be.’ (Shakespeare - Hamlet, 4.5. 44)
5. Bibliography
Books and articles available
Allen, Michael J. B., ‘Jaques against the Seven
Ages of the Proclan Man’, MLQ:
A Journal of Literary History, 42
(1981), 331-346.
Bradford, Alan Taylor, ‘Jaques’s Distortion
of the Seven-Ages Paradigm’, SQ,
27 (1976), 171-176.
Doebler, John, ‘Orlando: Athlete of Virtue’,
ShS: An Annual Survey of
Shakespearian Study and Production, 26
(1973), 111-117.
Hutchinson, D. S., ‘The Cynicism of Jaques: A New
Source in Spenser’s
Axiochus?’, N&Q, 39 (1992),
328-330.
Flexner, Stuart B., ed., The Random House Dictionary
of the English Language,
2nd edition (New York, 1987).
Kay, Dennis, Shakespeare - his life, work and era
(London, 1992).
Muir, Kenneth, Shakespeare’s Comic Sequence
(Liverpool, 1979).
Ormerod, David, ‘Orlando, Jaques, and Maurice
Sceve’, N&Q, 36 (1989),
325-327.
Ornstein, Robert, Shakespearean Comedies (New
York, 1986).
Pope, Alexander, ‘Critics on Shakespeare’,
in Andrews, W. T., ed., Readings
on Literary Criticism (London, 1973),
24-25.
Rogers, Pat, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of
English Literature (Oxford,
1987).
Schabert, Ina, ed., Shakespeare-Handbuch
(Stuttgart, 1992).
Shakespeare, William, As you like it, ed. by
Oliver, H. J., The New Penguin
Shakespeare (London, 1968).
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,
ed. By Schücking, L.L.,
William Shakespeare Complete Edition, 4 vols.
(Darmstadt, 1996).
Books and articles not available
Bow, John, ‘Orlando in As you like
it’, in Brockbank, Philip, ed., Players of
Shakespeare (Cambridge, 1985).
Forker, Charles R., ‘All the World’s a
Stage: Multiple Perspectives in Arden’,
Iowa-State-Journal-of-Research, 54
(1980), 421-430.
Hutchings, W., ‘ ”Exits and
Entrances”: Ways in and out of Arden’, CritQ,
21
(1979), 3-13.
Kelly, Thomas, ‘Shakespeare’s Romantic
Heroes: Orlando Reconsidered’, SQ,
24 (1973), 12-24.
McIntosh, Angus, ‘As you like it: A
grammatical clue to character’, A-Review-of-
English-Literature, 4 (1963), 69-81.
Miller, William E., ‘All the World’s a
Stage’, N&Q, 10 (1963), 99-101.
Rickman, Alan, ‘Jaques in As you like
it’, in Jackson, Russel and Robert
Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare
(New York, 1988).
Thron, Edward Michael, ‘Jaques: Emblems and
Morals’, SQ, 30 (1979), 84-89.
Thron, Edward Michael, ‘As you like it:
Jaques and Touchstone’, DAI, 29
(1968), 1881A-1882A.
Wolk, Anthony, ‘The Extra Jaques in As you like
it’, SQ, 23 (1972), 101-105.
- Index
A
Adam 10
Archetype
2,3,4,7,9,10
C
Conversion 8
E
Education 1,2,5
Evil 7
I
Injustice 2,5,6
J
Jaques 3,4,8
Jaques’ Speech 3,4,8,9
M
Moral courage 5,6,7
O
Oliver 2,4,5,7,8
Orlando 1,2,4,5,6,7
P
Physical strength 5,6
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