Is Rosalind the Perfect Heroine? Essay

As You Like It, is yet another Shakespearian twist that pities nature against civilisation, masculinity against femininity, high-mindedness against cynicism, youth against age, child against p bent, time against timelessness, and love against hate. Its both(prenominal) a gentle, pastoral comedy of love, and a dark and conjure upu on the wholey ambiguous com handst on gender construction. Rosalind as a theatrical affair is both a heroine and a portrayal of feminism.The evolution of feminine identity geniushin a patriarchal brass of billet informs both the setting and mooringization of this play.Rosalind dominates the play. As the audience we fully realise the complexity of her eccentric person. We rede her emotions, her subtle thoughts, and the fullness of her character that no other character in the play flush toilet match.She is boffo as a knowledgeable and charming critic of herself and othersI would give him several(prenominal) good advise for himself, for he seem s to bedevil the quotidian of love above him.The com ment of a heroine looked up in a dictionary is a woman possessing heroic qualities or a woman who has performed heroic whole shebang.This definition rout out be subjective however depending on the context and the time in which the heroines character was portrayed. The definition of a heroine changes and evolves over time which is why what a modern audience would class a heroine characterisations is divers(prenominal) to the definition of a heroine during the Elizabethan times. The traditional method takes the idea that all characters are real and lease lives of their own. This is very different to the modern method as it is structured around the idea that characters are all functions that portray Shakespeares ideas. They are all part of Shakespeares stage craft.They reflect the bigger tone of the play. They all have particular dramatic functions, and are set in a social and governmental world noush particular values and beliefs. Looking at a play from a traditional memory access is a to a greater extent imaginative and less academic, however this does allow the audience to become involved and emotionally attached to the characters. This way of approaching a play was used in the time of Shakespeare as plays were make purely for performance. Features of a 17th century heroine differs from a modern day heroine. In the Elizabethan times, beauty, innocence, intelligence, wit and independence would have been classed as heroine qualities. A modern day heroine is thought to be a person that has strength of character, a courageous and original person. Nowadays facial features and beauty does not really face as a heroic quality. hitherto perceptions and ideas of heroines differ from one person to another and this needs to be kept in mind.The portrayal of Rosalind is open to interpretations. It has been construe differently by different versions of performances and films. It has also been interpreted dif ferently by different characters in the play. Celia sees Rosalind (G eachmede) as someone who has misused our sex. Other characters desire phebe fall in love with (Ganymede) I love Ganymede. In Elizabethan times Rosalind would be viewed as a very feminine character who was at liberty when dressed as a male. This is because in the Elizabethan era, women were viewed as universe weak and men as being in control and indicantful. hence when a woman was dressed as a man she was at more liberty and could do things that she couldnt have through with(p) if she was in form of a woman. Nowadays Rosalind can be viewed a tomboy. Rosalind is a particular favourite amongst the feminist critics, who admire her ability to subvert the limitations that the company imposes on her as a woman. With boldness and imagination she disguises herself as a young man for most of the play in order to woo the man she loves and instructs him in how to be a more accomplished and attentive lover, a tutorship wh ich would not be welcome to her as a woman.You shall neer take her without her answer, unless you take her without her tongue. O that woman cannot make her fault her husbands occasion, let her nurse hr child herself, for shell bestow forth it like a fool. Rosalind and Celia develop into women. In the court these are inexperienced girls, yet as the singular action moves forward, they are forced to take on disguises and discover what it means to be a woman. Rosalind derives her power from her masculine disguise, and much of her humour is antifeminine. It can be said that this detracts her from being a perfect heroine. She can not exercise such power and control when being simply herself. Its Celia who actually makes the graduation exercise step into adult heterosexual womanhood. Shes angry over Rosalinds boorish behaviour as Ganymede, Celia berates her cousin and says we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your head, and guide the world what the bird hath done to her ow n nest.As mentioned before Rosalinds character is open to a myriad of readings. Harold Bloom describes her as a character that is at once so accomplished in wit, and so little implicated in the power that great wit can bring if properly exercised. Completely contradicting this, Camille Paglia writes Rosalind and Ganymede pretend to be a rakish lady killer and, at her assumption of that sexual persona, actually becomes one. She is all sex and power. Such critical disagreements are not uncommon for plays such as As You like It. In my opinion both of these critics are right in what they say. However Paglia is a bit too partial and biased. I understand her point about Rosalind being all sex and power, but I disagree with her saying that shes a radish lady killer.In my opinion Rosalind is a character that challenges feminism. When dressed as Ganymede she portrays the thoughts of men at the time. Shakespeare uses Rosalind to institutionalize this point across. That is the fact that at the time men misrepresented and repressed women. This is quite ironic as Rosalind is herself a womanly and the fact that at some points during the play, she puts females down is due to the fact that shes trying to act like a man and the men at the time had these types of approach and attitudes towards females. In my opinion shes not acting the way she does to put women down, but to argue the audience how ridiculous it is for men to behave that way towards women and to introduce dramatic mockery into the play. In my opinion Rosalind is a perfect heroine, however like any character or any other human being she has fatal flows which in this case has been sheltered by her virtues of character.I completely agree with Bloom on his describing of Rosalind. He also says that shes harmoniously balanced and beautifully of sound mind(predicate), which again I consent with. However he says that Rosalind is not interested in the power that her wit brings her. I opine that Rosalind as a char acter is well aware of the power that she has as Ganymede and the power that her wit brings her. I do also think that shes interested in the power that being dressed as a man gives her and she enjoys using that supremacy.In my opinion Rosalind is a manipulative character (in a positive way) and can be described as a heroine in most cases. When Orlando asks her if she is a native of the forest, Rosalind makes an ambiguous remark about being as much of a native as a rabbit is to the brand where it is born. Here we see how she uses her wit to protect her disguise. In other words, she never quite answers the question directly. She uses this kind of verbal sidestepping again in act V, scene2, when she says that she is in love with no woman and that shell unify phebe if she is going to marry any woman at all. She also makes phebe promise that if she refuses to marry her, shell marry silvius. Rosalind evades the other characters through her use of language, but she does so far one purpo se and that is to check a happy ending to the play. In my opinion this makes her a genuine heroine.As mentioned before Rosalind subverts the characteristic role of women in the Elizabethan period. She has great wit and wordplay and this is subversive of Shakespeare to bequeath a female with such qualities. One of the reasons that this play would have been counted as a comedy is the fact that the audience would have found Rosalinds courage and wit quite funny and they would not have taken it seriously. However Shakespeare would perhaps have wanted to get a very serious and important point across. virtually people believe that Shakespeare was a feminist and this is the point to prove it. He could have chosen to endue these qualities to another male character, but he chose a female character to reflect on all of these points.Some feminists are keen to stress the utter conquering of women in Elizabethan society in all areas of life economic, domestic, sexual, familial and personal. Whilst it is certainly true that women were in no way regarded as adjoin to men in official aspects of life, the plays have an important part to play as pieces of evidence as about the status of women in this period. They are not separate from their background but part of our ground about womens lives in this period. This plays has a strong emphasis on the importance of gender at the time and the limitations that females were under due to this. Shakespeare uses Rosalind to undermine this and to illustrate that women can be as witty as men. However significantly and in a sense ironically she is only able to show this to the audience when she is disguised as a male. She is the supreme representation of the possibilities of human personality if on that point is freedom and if oppression can be overcome. She also shows the possibilities of female ability once liberated which in Rosalinds case is liberty in disguise.At court Rosalinds status was lower than Celias, for Celia was the d aughter of the ruling duke indoors ten days if that thou beest found so near our public court as twenty dollar bill miles, thou diest for it.Inn the forest of Arden, Rosalind dressed as a man, has higher status and Celias role almost fades away.The play has been under a lot of political criticism. It is possible that Shakespeare wrote the play for political reasons. It is a play that describes character like Rosalind and Celia fleeing from the oppression and coercion that they had to deal with when they were at court. Duke Fredrick has beenAssociated with Queen Elizabeth for his vindictive deeds towards his own daughter and Rosalind. The play is about power and social structure. The court is seen as being the place of higher classed people, whereas the Forest of Arden is supposed to be for the undersides of the society (at the time) like women, exiles, outcasts and people in lower status. The play describes the court as being a patriarchal society and the forest as being a place of justice and equality. However we find out that this is not the case as there are wealthy landowners that enrich themselves of the poor. Phebe and Silvius are examples of these as they are shepherds that work for a rich and cruel man.This goes to show that the forest has the same hierarchy structure as the court. Shakespeare could have been trying to portray the fact that theres always injustice in enclosures.The end of the play is very significant to the irony of the play. Rosalind loses her independence, self-reliance and freedom when she gets married to Orlando and when she takes off Ganymedes clothes to you I give myself, for I am yours. This is so ironic as after all of Rosalinds efforts and all of Shakespeares efforts to portray her as a witty, intelligent character and aFeminist, she has gone back to being her old powerless self. I think that Shakespeare did this to show the audience that things like antifeminism had to be established and dealt with properly. I think that Sh akespeare wanted to bring to light the fact that it wasnt good enough that Rosalind did all the things that she did, as at the end of the day, Orlando had more power over her and he was in control and she dedicated herself to him. Shakespeare was telling the women n the audience that they would never have rights if they didnt stick up for themselves and if they didnt manage to get feminism established.Shakespeare transforms Rosalinds character throughout the play. From a love struck powerless girl to a dignified, aloof woman who managed to manipulate and influence other characters like Orland (the hero) and Phebe (Ganymedes lover). Rosalind becomes a very sardonic, scathing and witty character to show that women can be as derisive and satirical as men if they were given the opportunity to be. She fulfils a very important role and a very significant dramatic function. Then he allows her to put to work back to her original, immobilized character to show that there had to be a vital c hange in society otherwise women are never going to get the respect that they truly deserve if the society wasnt revolutionised and modified.