As You Like It | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 32 pages of analysis & critique of As You Like It.

As You Like It | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 32 pages of analysis & critique of As You Like It.
This section contains 9,050 words
(approx. 31 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Alan Brissenden

SOURCE: Brissenden, Alan. Introduction to The Oxford Shakespeare: As You Like It, edited by Alan Brissenden, pp. 1-86. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

In the following excerpt, Brissenden surveys theme and character in As You Like It, concentrating on motifs of love, transformation, and doubling.

Love

Love is associated with Rosalind from the beginning, when she suggests falling in love as a game that might make her merry (1.2.23), and Celia warns that she must be careful to ‘love no man in good earnest’, nor go so far that she cannot escape the situation without losing her honour. But, grieving for her father, Rosalind is in an emotionally receptive state when Orlando arrives to wrestle with Charles, and whereas in the first part of the scene Celia has been the initiator of dialogue, it is Rosalind who takes charge of the conversation when Orlando appears. Before and throughout the wrestling match...

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This section contains 9,050 words
(approx. 31 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Alan Brissenden
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Critical Essay by Alan Brissenden from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.