As You Like It – S/WW Adam Lough
Act 4 starts off with Jaques and Rosalind, Ganymede, arguing about Jaques mood. Rosalind eventually wins and Jaques leaves. Orlando shows up late for his love meeting with Rosalind, Ganymede. They talk about there love and Orlando wonders what will happen if he tries to kiss his love and she rejects him. She says just to talk about it, but Orlando thinks that he will die if she rejects him. Rosalind says that that’s just silly. Orlando then requests to leave to go with Duke Senior. Rosalind then tells Celia that her love for Orlando has grown considerably. Then Jaques and some of Duke’s Senior men kill a deer and talk about its horns. In the next scene Orlando is 2 hours late from getting back to Rosalind and Celia. That’s when Silvius came with a letter from Phoebe to Ganymede, Rosalind. They thought the letter was first an angry one but then it started to compare Ganymede to a god. Rosalind sent back a letter saying that he will never love Phoebe until she loves Silvius. Oliver then enters and tells them a story about how Orlando saved him from a lion and a snake. He then says that he got bite by the lion and started to bleed heavily, he then went to the duke and that’s where he spent the last minutes of his life. Rosalind, hearing this, passed out. When she came to, she merely said that she was playing the part of the girl who Orlando has been “wooing”. (WWWHHATT?!?! that didn’t sense to me at all, why would he fall for that?!?) Act 5 starts up with Audrey and Touchstone walking through the forest, they are talking about there delayed marriage. Then William shows up, he exclaims that he indeed is in love with Audrey, Touchstone basically tells him to back off his women. The next scene starts off with Orlando and Oliver having a conversation about Oliver being in love with Aliena and Orlando’s love for Rosalind. (Soooo apparently that whole “Orlando’s dead thing” was just an act to see how Ganymede would react, there taking this stuff to seriously). Anyway, then Ganymede asks why he can’t take Rosalind’s place, Orlando admits he has helped but he just can’t wait until he has the chance to try and marry her. Phoebe and Silvius then enter, they have a conversation about Ganymede and how Phoebe wants to marry him. Ganymede promises to marry all of them if they all go to Oliver’s wedding, they agree. Then Touchstone is off with Audrey, they meet some of the Duke’s pages and they sing a song. Touchstone didn’t really like the song. The next day at the church Duke Senior really wonders if Ganymede can do everything that he promised. Celia and Rosalind disappear into the forest and come back out undisguised. Phoebe sees that the man she loves is actually a women, so she says that she’ll marry Silvius. Then all the couples get married; Orlando and Rosalind, Silvius and Phoebe, Oliver and Celia, and Audrey and Touchstone. They have a great wedding feast. Jaques returns and tells them that Duke Frederick has left to lead a solitary life at the monastery, everyone is happy and Jaques says that he too is going to live in the monastery. They all live happily ever after.
Question: How comes when everyone found out that Ganymede was actually Rosalind no one was really that surprised?
Words
prithee-pray thee
censure-strong expression of approval
emulation-effort or desire to excel others
entreaty-earnest request
videlicet-to introduce examples
Adam Lough
Category: Uncategorized 3 comments »
May 24th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I don’t know! That puzzled me too. I would have been mad if I was Phoebe and I was actually loving a woman the entire time. I think a fight should have broken out, that ould have made the play much more interesting. But, I guess it will remain a mystery.
Mystery, I love that name.
Mallory
May 24th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
They were not surprised because the story was to simple. The author did not even include a problem in the story. The play ends with everyone being happy. Asking why no one was surprised is like asking why the hobbits failed to battle Uraiki on the plains of Pelenor fields. It is just not a relevant question because the author failed to go into that much detail. I think at least.
B Waz
May 26th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I think no one was suprised because Rosalind was acting a little strange and like I said in another comment, Rosalind pretending to be someone she’s not had no bad effects on any of the marriages. I think people thought she was really weird after the fact, but no one was suprised because it was a really big deal.
~Laurisa