Résumé
Résumé de As You Like It
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love quick talk, romantic comedy and stories where people change when they leave home. It also suits first-time readers of Shakespeare.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
As You Like It is a comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written around the turn of the 1600s and first printed in the First Folio of 1623. It draws on a prose romance by Thomas Lodge called Rosalynde. Shakespeare keeps the outline of that tale but adds new characters, above all the sharp-tongued fool Touchstone and the gloomy thinker Jaques.
The play moves from a harsh court to a green forest, and it asks what happens to people when they leave the places where power sits. Two families are broken by greed. A young woman puts on a boy's clothes and finds she can speak more freely than ever before. You get a plot full of banter, songs, mistaken identity and love in many shapes, from the foolish to the truly tender. Let us begin where the trouble begins, with a usurped duke and a mistreated younger son.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Two brothers wronged, two families splitFree
- 2A wrestling match changes two lives
- 3The Forest of Arden offers shelter and strange company
- 4Rosalind in disguise teaches Orlando about love
- 5Love makes everyone a little foolish
- 6Talk, song and the world as a stage
Point clé 1 sur 6
Two brothers wronged, two families split
The play opens with trouble in two households. Orlando is the youngest son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys. His father left him a fair share, but his eldest brother Oliver has kept him at home like a farm hand. Orlando has no schooling, no money and no rank to match his birth, and he says so out loud.
At the same time, a larger wrong has taken place at court. Duke Frederick has seized the dukedom from his elder brother, Duke Senior, and driven him into exile. Senior now lives in the Forest of Arden with a band of loyal lords, where they hunt deer and live like the outlaws of old English tales. The two stories mirror each other. In both, an elder brother is wronged by a younger one or by a brother who holds power, and in both, someone good has been pushed out into the wild.
Yet one person has been allowed to stay at court. She is Rosalind, daughter of the banished Duke Senior. Frederick keeps her because his own daughter Celia loves her so much that she cannot bear to be parted from her. The two girls are cousins, but they speak like sisters, and they tease each other with great ease.
This first movement sets up the question that drives the play. Where does a person belong when family, land and law have all failed them? The court is a place of fear, where every smile may hide a plot. Shakespeare shows that world quickly, so that the forest, when we reach it, feels like a deep breath after a held one.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Who’s who
- Rosalind
- Duke Senior's witty daughter and Celia's cousin disguises herself as Ganymede while exploring Orlando's love.
- Orlando
- Sir Rowland de Boys's youngest son loves Rosalind and suffers mistreatment from his elder brother Oliver.
- Celia
- Duke Frederick's daughter is Rosalind's devoted cousin, accompanying her into exile disguised as Aliena.
- Touchstone
- The court fool accompanies Rosalind and Celia to Arden and takes a fancy to Audrey.
- Jaques
- A melancholy lord accompanying Duke Senior observes his forest companions with sharp, often gloomy humour.
- Duke Senior
- Rosalind's father is the rightful duke, living in Arden after his brother seized power.
- Oliver
- Orlando's envious elder brother denies him education and opportunity while plotting against him.
- Phoebe
- A proud shepherdess rejects Silvius's devotion and feels attracted to Rosalind's assumed identity, Ganymede.
- Duke Frederick
- Celia's father has usurped his brother Duke Senior's position and rules the court.
- Silvius
- A young shepherd devoted to Phoebe pursues her despite her disdain for him.
- Audrey
- A plain goatherd in Arden attracts Touchstone, whose courtly wit contrasts with her simplicity.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 24,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 35 min
- Listening time2 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about As You Like It
What is As You Like It about?
It tells of Rosalind, banished from her uncle's court, who flees to the Forest of Arden dressed as a boy. There she meets Orlando, who loves her, and many other lovers, and tests how real love should be.
Who is Ganymede in As You Like It?
Ganymede is the name Rosalind takes when she disguises herself as a young man in the forest. Her cousin Celia calls herself Aliena. Rosalind uses the disguise to speak freely and to test Orlando.
What does all the world's a stage mean?
It is the opening of a speech by Jaques, who compares human life to a play. People enter, play many parts across seven ages, and exit. It is a bleak view of how life passes.
When was As You Like It written and is it a true story?
It is fiction, written around 1599 or 1600 and first printed in the First Folio of 1623. Shakespeare based it on Thomas Lodge's prose romance Rosalynde, published in 1590.
Is As You Like It hard to read?
It is one of the easier Shakespeare plays to follow. Much of it is witty prose, the plot is clear, and the disguise and love stories are easy to enjoy.