Sept. 25th Blog 6: As You Like It

As You Like It is a great play and I wish we could learn more about it but sadly we will be starting to discuss Hamlet the next class meeting. My favorite scene in the play is ACT 3. SC. 3, lines 433-435, Rosalind is disguised as Ganymede, “I would cure you if you would but call me Rosalind and come every day to my cote and woo me.” I really liked this scene because as we were talking about in class, a guy would normally be playing even the women during a play. But also, with Rosalind disguised as Ganymede, she could say and do whatever she wanted because women were expected to act like women and they weren’t allowed to voice their opinions. So this scene really had an impact on me because I can see how today, women can say and do whatever they want but the reason Shakespeare made Rosalind disguise as Ganymede was not just for protection for her and Celia who had went into the forest but because Rosalind would be able to voice her opinion.

Also, in this scene, I feel like Rosalind could have came out and told Orlando who she was and he would have protected her since that is the main reason she is disguised as Ganymede but she keeps who she is hidden to see how Orlando acts. She wants to find out if he loves her or not and would he do anything for her, that’s why Rosalind disguised as Ganymede wants Orlando to pretend he is Rosalind and try to woo him and to see if he really has what it takes to make Rosalind love him and be with him.

Today we acted out some of the scenes in As You Like It, which I found interesting since we focused on Jacques. It was interesting just focusing on him because he just shows up sometimes and does not have a huge part in the play. There was one part where he does not deny he is melancholy when Rosalind ask him but he says it is a melancholy of his own. But the way he says this is that it is bittersweet, he is sad about it but it really doesn’t matter. The scene where he is talking to Orlando about not seeing each other often was funny to me. He is trying to tell Orlando that he does not want to be friends, he does not want to talk with him often, and he does not like Orlando’s loves name. Orlando, on the other hand, is trying to talk with Jacques and wants to be better strangers and he tells Jacques that it does not matter if he likes Rosalind’s name or not.

Overall, I really enjoyed this play and kind of sad to be leaving this funny play to something not so funny. I do wish we could have spent more time on this play and acted out more scene’s although the Jacques play as Dr. Plough called it, was fun to do and listen to.