Estefania's blog

A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As you like it are considerate as pastoral comedies, both present an idealized view of country life against the life of the court. Therefore these two scenarios will represent the world of fantasy and the world of reality. That world of reality belong to the city and the court, the conflicts will start in this one, while the forest, seen as the fantasy world, where everything may come true, will be the place to solve those problems that reality creates.

To start, in As you like it, the reality is found in this duchy of France and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream this world is found in the city of Athens under Theseus rules. In the court the legitimate duke is exiled by a usurper, Duke Frederick. His rules are based on violence and threats to those he considers his political enemies, including anyone loyal to Duke Senior, his brother. In this way he banishes Rosalind for being his brother’s daughter and the only explanation he gives to her is ‘Thou art thy father’s daughter. That’s enough’ (1.3.519). Celia, her desolate cousin, decides to go with her and they dream about all of that they expect to do and to find in the Forest of Arden. They decide to change their names, Celia will be Aliena and Rosalind will no longer be a woman she will dress as a man being Ganymede.

Before leaving, Rosalind falls in love with Orlando, the younger son of Sir Rowland, after he beats Charles in a wrestling match. Because Orlando has beaten Charles in the match his brother wants to kill him, so his servant Adam warns him ‘this house is but a butchery’ (2.3.731) and they will escape to the Forest of Arden.  

As in A Midsummer Nigh’t Dream, the world of reality corresponds to the city and the court where the conflicts start. As the word says, reality is the image of those, events, issues and problems, that the real life of that period represents. The real world is represented as the, the law, the reason, ‘the butchery’, the men rules, the violence, the serious world, the absurdity and the injustices.

 In both plays the lovers and the exiled too, escape from the anguish reality making their way towards the Forest of Arden, an imaginary wood seen as a place of harmony, idealized family relationships, poetic imagination and freedom as the Duke Senior says:

‘Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,

Hath not old custom made this life more sweet

Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods

More free from peril than the envious court?

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,

The seasons’ difference’ (2.1.207-212)

In this place where ‘there is no clock’ (3.2.1493) the problems will be solved. As in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, although there are different motifs to run to the forest, this is the place of the lovers who in both plays escape from reality, and where everything may come true. Therefore the forest corresponds to the world of fantasy. Although in As you like it the fantasy world does not involve magic, the fantasy elements are notably seen. The metamorphosis of Rosalind into a man let her be the ‘fairy’ this time to match every couple with the correspondent one and establish the order as the character of Puck does in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She plays until the end of the comedy with this changing role of woman and man.’ It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue… If I were a woman’ (Epilogue. 2778. 2791). This can only happens in this world, letting the characters dream, Rosalind can dress as a man to teach Orlando how to conquer her love, Orlando can express his love to her through poetry and the exiled ones can sing and play music all day. This time we can define fantasy as those elements which separate us from the harsh reality of the period. The fantasy world this time is seen as the idealized world.

It is to stand out the character of Puck in similarity with Rosalind, both join the couples but they are also the ones who say farewell to the audience. Puck apologizes for the ‘dreams’ lived during the representation of the play; Rosalind says her goodbyes doing a conjuration to the present men and women in order that we love each other.

‘My way is to conjure you, and I’ll begin with

the women. I charge you, O women,

for the love you bear to men, 

to like as much of this play as please you;

and I charge you, O men,

for the love you bear to women as I perceive

 by your simpering, none of you hates them

 that between you and the women

 the play may please’. (Epilogue)