Character List #
Rosalind - The daughter of Duke Senior, she remains at court even though her father has been banished because of her loyalty to her cousin Celia. Eventually Duke Frederick banishes her too and Celia in loyalty leaves with her indicating they belong to each other. Rosalind is intelligent, reflective and articulate and makes some of the most observant comments in the play.
Duke Frederick* - The younger brother of Duke Senior and usurper of his throne. He is a threatened ruler, who governs through fear, banishing most of the court because he fails to trust anyone.
Duke Senior* - The father of Rosalind and the rightful ruler of the dukedom in which the play is set. An exemplar figure who accepts his lot stoically and forms a new accepting community in an idyllic Ardenne forest that eventually attracts most of the outcasts of the court and eventually becomes powerful enough to be restored to legitimate power.
Celia - The daughter of Duke Frederick and Rosalind’s dearest friend who remains loyal after her father banishes Rosalind from the court. She adopts the name Aleena, Italian and Latin for stranger or Alien.
Rosalind is eventually banished from the paranoid usurper’s court because he fears her popularity threatens his rule. Celia, the daughter of Frederick, loyally accompanies her. She adopts a new name and male disguise, Ganymede, Jove’s page or Zeus’s cup bearer, noted for bi-sexuality and homosexual relationships. Dressed as a man she commands more respect than as a woman getting whatever she wants.
She represents one of Shakespeare’s most powerful women, but mainly because she dresses like a man. She is a strong forceful character who organizes those around her. Her father’s kingdom has been usurped by his brother so Rosalind disguised as a man follows her father to the Forest of Ardenne to support him. As a man, she is free to do things a woman could not do, such as gather resources, jewels, dress in trousers, buy a cottage, look after her sister, teach the young man who is in love with her, how to court her, free as a bird.
Rosalind in ends up alive and stronger than ever, as do most in the comedies.
Orlando is the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois and younger brother of Oliver. His inheritance has been swindled by his elder brother and he too is banished and finds refuge in Ardenne Forest where he finds acceptance, comfort and support. He has fallen madly in love with Rosalind and later not recognizing her in disguise, laments his longing for her.
As You Like It begins with Orlando resentful of his mistreatment by his first-born brother who denies him his rightful inheritance and eventually banishes him from the family. Mean time we turn to the nation state where a younger brother, Frederick has usurped the throne and exiled the legitimate ruler, his older brother, Duke Senior. Later Frederick also banishes Rosalind from his court.
All three become outsiders who seek refuge in the forest of Ardens and live like Robin Hood. A lot of people are banished in As You Like It. Some characters go forcibly, threatened from their homes, such as Duke Senior, Rosalind, and Orlando. Some have voluntarily abandoned their positions out of a sense of loyalty and rightness, such as Senior’s loyal band of lords, Celia, and the noble servant Adam. It is, then, rather remarkable that the play ends with four marriages—a ceremony that unites individuals into couples and ushers these couples into the community. The community that sings and dances its way through Ardenne at the close of Act V, scene iv, is the same community that will return to the dukedom in order to rule and be ruled. This event, where the poor dance in the company of royalty, suggests a utopian world in which wrongs can be righted and hurts healed.
The sense of reconciliation and restoration with which the play ends depend upon the formation of a community of exiles in politics and love coming together to soothe their various wounds.
True treasure is found in a community in which we are known, accepted, and valued as flawed-yet-gifted contributors to the welfare of the whole. Such community is rooted in common interests, respectful of its traditions, hopeful about its future, committed to mutual support, trust and doing justice. Communities of this kind rely on an assumption that we help one another, loving our neighbors as ourselves.
This is best shown when Orlando unselfishly helps Oliver’s distress and transforming into a caring compliant member of the forest exiles. In the second plot Duke Frederick also becomes converted by a religious man, abandons his attempt to capture all the exiles and retreats from world into religious life, restoring the crown and all lands to the ones he had banished. Order has been restored.
“can one desire too much of a good thing”? IV. i. 118.
Consider the opposing points of view posed by [Oscar Wilde]
Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
Her view on marriage:
“[m]aids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives” (IV.i.141–143)
Rosalind is eventually banished from the paranoid usurper’s court because he fears her popularity threatens his rule. Celia, the daughter of Frederick, loyally accompanies her.
She adopts a new name and male disguise, Ganymede, Jove’s page or Zeus’s cup bearer, noted for bi-s*xuality and homos*sexual relationships. Dressed as a man she commands more respect than as a woman.
Orlando is the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois and younger brother of Oliver. His inheritance has been swindled by his elder brother and he too is banished and finds refuge in Ardenne Forest where he finds acceptance, comfort and support. He has fallen madly in love with Rosalind and later not recognising her in disguise, laments his longing for her.
He and Jaques have long running derisory repartees.
Jaques should seek out a fool who wanders about the forest:
“He is drowned in the brook. Look but in, and you shall see him,”*
(III.ii.262–263) meaning that Jaques will see a fool in his own reflection .
Jaques - A faithful lord who accompanies Duke Senior into exile in the Forest of Ardenne. A rather droll, cynical philosopher who expresses some of the most profound and memorable passages, especially the lengthy observations of life in the [Seven Ages of Man.]
While he is a loyal servant of Duke Senior, he does not appear to welcome the company of others as this exchange between Jaques and Orlando illustrates:
Jaques: I thank you for your company, but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone.
Orlando: And so had I; but yet, for fashion sake, I thank you too for your society.
Jaques: God-buy-you; let’s meet as little as we can.
Orlando: I do desire we may be better strangers. (III. ii. 252 – 256)
Duke Senior - The father of Rosalind and the rightful ruler of the dukedom in which the play is set. An exemplar figure who accepts his lot stoically and forms a new accepting community in an idyllic Ardenne forest that eventually attracts most of the outcasts of the court and eventually becomes powerful enough to be restored to legitimate power.
Celia - The daughter of Duke Frederick and Rosalind’s dearest friend who remains loyal after her father banishes Rosalind from the court. She adopts the name Aliena, Italian and Latin for stranger or Alien.
Duke Frederick - The younger brother of Duke Senior and usurper of his throne. He is a threatened ruler, who governs through fear, banishing most of the court because he fails to trust anyone.
To Rosalind:
You, cousin.
* Within these ten days if that thou be’st found*
* So near our public court as twenty miles,*
* Thou diest for it.* I. iii. 45 - 48
Touchstone - A clown in Duke Frederick’s court who accompanies Rosalind and Celia in their flight to Ardenne.
Oliver - The oldest son of Sir Rowland de Bois and sole inheritor of the de Bois estate.
Silvius - A young, suffering shepherd, who is desperately in love with the disdainful Phoebe.
Phoebe -
Lord Amiens - A faithful lord who accompanies Duke Senior into exile in the Forest of Ardenne.
Charles - A professional wrestler in Duke Frederick’s court who is overthrown by Orlando..
Adam - The elderly former servant of Sir Rowland de Bois.
Sir Rowland de Bois - The father of Oliver and Orlando, friend of Duke Senior, and enemy of Duke Frederick.
Corin - A shepherd. Corin attempts to counsel his friend Silvius in the ways of love, but Silvius refuses to listen. He represents self-sufficiency.
* “Sir, I am a true labourer. I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm; and the greatest of my pride is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck.”*
Audrey - A simpleminded goatherd who agrees to marry Touchstone.
William - A young country boy who is in love with Audrey.