Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
Shakespeare based his comedy As You Like It on Thomas Lodge’s pastoral Rosalynde, and while scholars such as Dora Smith and Albert Tolman have pointed out that Shakespeare humanizes the characters and relationships found in Rosalynde, scholars have failed to address why Shakespeare only chooses to humanize some of those relationships while he further romanticizes others. Reflecting on scholarship that analyzes the feminist messages and societal critiques found in Shakespeare’s play, this paper addresses the play in the context of the courtly love convention that dominates pastorals like Rosalynde. This paper argues that Shakespeare romanticizes the relationships in Rosalynde that resemble courtly love in his play and humanizes the relationships that don’t in order to juxtapose conventional courtly love with his own definition of what realistic, healthy love is, mocking courtly love and promoting healthy love in the process. Shakespeare further ennobles the sisterly relationship between Rosalind and Celia. He creates the realistic characters of Touchstone and Audrey in order to show how incompatible courtly love is with faulty human nature. At the same time, he undermines the courtly relationship between Celia and Oliver by giving them a relationship based on love at first sight. He ultimately presents proof of the triumph of his realistic love over courtly love in the form of Rosalind and Orlando’s relationship, which transitions from artificial courtly love into healthy love as Rosalind teaches Orlando to properly express his love for her. Through his characters, Shakespeare shows that sharing real love with someone involves selflessness and mutual affection more than courtly manners. By examining the changes that Shakespeare makes to the original source in As You Like It, a fresh perspective is offered for understanding Shakespeare’s disdain for the glorified ritualistic love found in pastorals and his proffered solution to this simplistic convention.
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Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Nancy Christiansen
Shakespeare's Mockery of Courtly Love in As You Like It
Shakespeare based his comedy As You Like It on Thomas Lodge’s pastoral Rosalynde, and while scholars such as Dora Smith and Albert Tolman have pointed out that Shakespeare humanizes the characters and relationships found in Rosalynde, scholars have failed to address why Shakespeare only chooses to humanize some of those relationships while he further romanticizes others. Reflecting on scholarship that analyzes the feminist messages and societal critiques found in Shakespeare’s play, this paper addresses the play in the context of the courtly love convention that dominates pastorals like Rosalynde. This paper argues that Shakespeare romanticizes the relationships in Rosalynde that resemble courtly love in his play and humanizes the relationships that don’t in order to juxtapose conventional courtly love with his own definition of what realistic, healthy love is, mocking courtly love and promoting healthy love in the process. Shakespeare further ennobles the sisterly relationship between Rosalind and Celia. He creates the realistic characters of Touchstone and Audrey in order to show how incompatible courtly love is with faulty human nature. At the same time, he undermines the courtly relationship between Celia and Oliver by giving them a relationship based on love at first sight. He ultimately presents proof of the triumph of his realistic love over courtly love in the form of Rosalind and Orlando’s relationship, which transitions from artificial courtly love into healthy love as Rosalind teaches Orlando to properly express his love for her. Through his characters, Shakespeare shows that sharing real love with someone involves selflessness and mutual affection more than courtly manners. By examining the changes that Shakespeare makes to the original source in As You Like It, a fresh perspective is offered for understanding Shakespeare’s disdain for the glorified ritualistic love found in pastorals and his proffered solution to this simplistic convention.