Abstract
Shakespeare’s As You Like It is no doubt a successful pastoral model, whether read as a play of complete celebration of the spirit of pastoral romance or as a sheer satire of the pastoral ideal, in which the pastoral quality should very much rely on its characteristic pastoral setting, the Forest of Arden in comparison with Sicily and Arcadia. However, it should be noteworthy that Shakespeare seems not only to build an idealized Arden, but also to rebuild a real ethical court in the forest by destroying the ethical order in the city court. By this way the forest setting serves invisibly as a symbolized, idealized pastoral court, with the Duke and his followers rebuilding a new ethical field. Thus there reaches a compromise between idealism and realism and a duet between the ethical and the political order has been well established. Along with the ethical identities reconstructed the pastoral court has been highlighted which suggests a success in finding the pastoral ambience as an idealized way to melt the ethical and the political values into one sweet symphony of brotherhood.
Highlights
The ‘Pastoral’ genre has endured a long history in literature before its final arrival in England so it was not a new attempt when Shakespeare got involved with pastoral theme into his plays
Shakespeare’s As You Like It is no doubt a successful pastoral model, whether read as a play of complete celebration of the spirit of pastoral romance or as a sheer satire of the pastoral ideal, in which the pastoral quality should very much rely on its characteristic pastoral setting, the Forest of Arden in comparison with Sicily and Arcadia
As the setting of the play, the Forest of Arden could be at first recognized as Lodge’s Ardennes which still a real existence spanning the borders of Belgium.(Note 1)One cannot ignored the influence of Ardennes upon Shakespeare’s creation of the Arden Forest for from his time the literary Forest of Arden had entered English literature through an Italian tradition. (Note 2)it cannot be over-sighted that when Shakespeare attempts to retell the story into his play, the very setting coming upon in his mind should be his familiar Arden area where still exists some small pieces of woods at the moment
Summary
The ‘Pastoral’ genre has endured a long history in literature before its final arrival in England so it was not a new attempt when Shakespeare got involved with pastoral theme into his plays. (Note 5) Subsequently, Oliver’s conversation with the wrestler Charles relays two important messages that (1) he plots to kill Orlando; (2) the exiled Duke Senior lives in the Forest of Arden with his followers and “there they live like the Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, / and fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world” The Forest of Arden “forms a magic circle (the reference to the Forest as a magic circle is explicitly made in Act V) out of which issues a new order based on a more realistic attitude towards life and love” (Cirillo, 1971, p. 22)
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