As You Like It

Belonging to Place

Negative/Positive Connotations

Rosalind, Act I Sc II:
“Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure”

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Negative connotations to current ‘home’ – she has no pleasure due to her father’s absence = sense of alienation.

Duke Senior, Act II Sc I: “ the envious court”

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Envious’ provides a  negative connotation about his home inparticular referencing the ‘envy’ of his brother that resulted in his exile,again alienation.

Adam Act II Sc III: “ this house is but a butchery

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 Negative connotations re:Orlando’s home (not Adam’s!)- ‘butchery’ highlights the peril provided within.

Belonging to the Natural World

Juxtaposition through Rhetorical Question

Duke Senior, Act II Sc I:
“Hath not old custom made this life more sweet than that of painted pomp?” AND/OR
“Are not these woods more free from peril than the envious court?”

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By asking this of the audience (presenting juxtapositionwithin question), Shakespeare is persuading/positioning them to believe thatexile/the natural world is preferable to court.

Metaphor

Duke Senior, Act V Sc IV:
“…returnèd fortune”

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This ‘fortune’ is a great gift: the gift of being able to return to the court and their other material belongings. Through this metaphor,Shakespeare highlights the sense of belonging he himself truly finds at court-so is it in the natural world, or the material world that we truly find belonging. 

Juxtaposition through verse

Duke Senior’s Men, Act II, Sc V:
“Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather”

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Through song/verse, Shakespeare presents the favourable image of the forest, subtly suggesting that there are worse enemies within the court.

Main topic

Main topic