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1. Introduction Characters have always been and still are the focal point of every play. This is not surprising, since it is they who make up the whole story. Judging by the way they talk and gesticulate, they do not only determine their own personality but they also develop the plot, the social context, the atmosphere and the theme of the whole play. Language is the most important factor, when it comes to identifying and analysing a certain character type. The picture that we, as the reader, get of a character is, on the one hand, a reflection of what he says, and, on the other hand, of how he says it.
This will become clear if we look at the opening scene of As you like it. Here, Orlando complains in an inexorable stream of words about his upbringing - if he has had one at all -, in which he was treated like the black sheep of the family. He keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept... His horses are better bred, for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage. (1. 1. 6 - 11) This extract from Orlando's first speech is a shout of protest. (Doebler, 111) In twenty-three lines Orlando gives vent to his wrath, a wrath he has choked back for much too long. He tries to portray himself as an uneducated and foolish person, a person who has been kept like a menial. Yet, it is made quite clear to the reader that this is not the case at all.
Orlando draws a parallel with his brothers cattle, thus, becoming aware of the fact that even the horses and oxen are superior to him, for they are taught their manage. (1. 1. 11) Orlando chooses here the word manage, a technical term that derives from the French word manege (Shakespeare, Commentary) referring to the action and paces to which a horse is trained in the riding-school, particularly for military purposes. Orlando expresses himself in such a sophisticated manner, which a person who had not obtained a good education would have never been able to do. But it is not only the choice of words used that suggest that Orlando is actually far from being reduced to the state of an animal, but it is the length of this passage as well. Orlando does not get rid of his anger by simply throwing together a few sentences - I am so stupid. I have never had a good education, for which I loathe my brother -, but he does that in a much more round-about and sophisticated manner. This can be easily exemplified by looking at the individual sentences of this first speech.
No matter which one we pick out, every single one is at least four lines long. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me his countenance seems to take from me: he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. (1. 1. 15 - 19) All that Orlando states within these five lines is the fact that his brother denies him everything he is actually entitled to. But he did not need 49 words to say so. By looking at the language Orlando uses, the reader can surmise that, despite his lack of formal education, he is very well aware of formal manners and is by no means as uneducated as he takes himself for. This assumption that the reader makes right at the very beginning of the play is also confirmed by his brother Oliver. In a soliloquy Oliver broaches the subject that he hates nothing more than he [Orlando].
Yet he is gentle, never schooled and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly beloved. (1. 1. 154 - 59) Since a soliloquy is a monologue that conveys a characters thoughts or other information to the audience whilst no other characters are on stage, we can assume his speech to be credible. Thus, the reader does not place his trust in Orlando by taking everything he says for granted. It is the language Orlando uses that reveals his personality. This is one way of analysing a characters personality. Another way, one that complements the first one, occurs by means of expectations.
This simply means that we already have a pre-conceived notion or idea in our minds of how a certain character should behave, act, etc. This is based on our personal experience as well as on the force of habit. We have learned that, in a play, a whole range of characters exist which are all organised in a particular pattern. There is the protagonist of the play, a young, beautiful, innocent person. Then a mean, wicked scoundrel known as antagonist, a brave soldier, a foolish lover, a lonesome father, an uneducated fool, etc. We all have an idea of how these types of characters ought to behave.
In other words, we place them in different categories, where each category represents one prototype, one archetype. The archetype in Jaques speech of Seven stages in a mans life An archetype is the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based. (Flexner, s. v. archetype) Now, archetypes do not only occur in the fictitious world of a play in the form of certain character patterns, but they are also present in real life. Jaques, the second Son of Sir Rowland the Boys, realises that every human being has to pass through various stages in life, each of which has an archetypal function, i.
e. in each phase of life we are expected to behave in a certain, almost inescapable manner. This, Jaques brings home to the reader in a vivid description of the seven stages in a mans life. And all the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurses arms; Then, the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school; and then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress eyebrow; then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannons mouth; and then, the justice, In fair round belly, with good capon lined, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances, And so he plays his part; the sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound; last Scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (2. 7. 140 - 167) Jaques sees life as a stage-play with seven acts, each act representing an important phase in life.
Stage one, he describes as infancy, followed by stage two defined as childhood. In stage three we find the sighing lover and in stage four the swearing soldier. Stage five deals with man following a profession, stage six with man at an advanced age and, finally, stage seven, with man in the last stages of life. This system is clearly laid out and represents a kind of order in our lives. Everyone of us has to undergo these changes, one after the other, and no matter which one we think of, a certain idea associated with this particular stage enters our head. In stage four, for instance, comes the lover, Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress eyebrow; (2. 7. 148 - 150).
This is exactly the stage, Orlando and Oliver are in, with the only difference being that in the case of Orlando it becomes obvious right at the very beginning of the play. Orlando, the archetypal character Orlando is a good-looking young man, who is head over heels in love. Due to a fatal intrigue of his brother Oliver, he has to leave the court to seek his fortune elsewhere, and he does so with fearless bravery and boldness. Upon arriving in the Forest of Arden, Orlando hangs poems in praise of his beloved Rosalynd on trees. After a short game of disguise, which Rosalynd initiates in order to put Orlando's love to a test, they get happily married.
Throughout the play Orlando behaves in every possible way how we, having this archetypal concept of stage four of Jaques speech in mind, would expect him to. But let us look at the way in which he fulfils this expected archetypal pattern in more detail. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will, but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sales, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well This first speech by Orlando, who is the romantic hero of the play, is the opening scene of Shakespeare's As you like it. Upon reading the first four Rosalynd indicates that Orlando has not only defeated his component Charles, but that his charm and good-looks have overthrown (1. 2. 243) her as well. lines, the reader finds himself situated right in the middle of the story of the two brothers. Shakespeare did not start off with a lengthy description of how Sir Rowland de Boys death came about, but plunged right into the action.
In other words, he started in medias res. So, all we get to know is that Orlando was supposed to obtain a thousand crowns from his father which his elder brother keeps for himself. It is merely due to Orlando reaching manhood that he realises that he has to do something about his miserable situation, for he has been treated unfairly and unjustly by his brother Oliver. Whereas Jaques, the third son of Sir Rowland the Boys, has had the pleasure of obtaining a good education, Orlando has not. The latter was kept rustically at home in a manner that differs not from the stalling of an ox. (1. 1. 6 - 10) He was exploited by the older generation in the person of an eldest brother. Ever since the death of their father Oliver has treated Orlando shamelessly, denying him a relevant education by setting him to mindless tasks. (Doebler, 111) Orlando recalls that even the horses and the oxen led a better life and that all he basically gets from his brother, is the right to grow.
But Orlando is not at all the uneducated and foolish backwoodsman he sees in himself. He is the more noble one and, despite less power, the stronger one, according to Ornstein, the one with chivalric manliness. (Ornstein, 148) This reveals itself in two ways: physical strength as well as moral courage. Orlando's physical strength becomes visible to the reader in many instances. The first two and most obvious ones are when Orlando fights with Oliver, on the one hand, and with Duke Fredericks wrestler Charles, on the other hand. He defeats both of them. In the quarrel with Oliver, Orlando seizes him by the throat. (1. 1. 50) When Oliver utters Let me go, I say (1. 1. 61), we know that Oliver has won.
As far as the wrestling with Charles is concerned, Orlando's strength becomes even more visible to the reader. When Rosalynd encourages Orlando with the words Now Hercules be thy speed, young man! (1. 2. 197), she invokes the typical archetype of strength, namely Hercules. Since the reader sympathise's with Orlando, he is very likely to equip him with Hercules-like...
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Research essay sample on Seven Stages Opening Scene
