Like all good comedies, As You Like It addresses social norms and encourages audiences to question the status quo. In this seemingly light comedy (that most people remember as the “one where she goes to the forest dressed like a guy”) Shakespeare makes his voice heard on the most pressing topics of his day- gender roles, land grabbing, and censorship. Using traditions defined by the Italian Comedy, Shakespeare brings universal truths to light through laughter. Jonathan Swift, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame, and Stephen Colbert clearly took note.

While the entire play is full of terrific food for thought, three characters are shining examples of Shakespeare’s subversive ideas. The court fool Touchstone delivers some of the most glaring social commentary in the play. With his name, which references an actual touchstone- an object that tells us whether or not something is real or fake- Shakespeare sends us the not-so-subtle message to heed the truth that Touchstone speaks. Since the days of the court jester, the clown has played the role of truth-teller. Spreading subversive ideas gets a lot easier when you can shrug these ideas off as a silly joke.  One of Touchstones most enduring lines, “The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly” harkens to this point exactly.

It is no surprise that Rosalind is one of the most enduring female characters of all time. With Rosalind Shakespeare presents a world of possibility where women are in control of their futures- including who they marry and how they woo. The fantasy that Shakespeare presents in As You Like It could not be more different from the reality of life in Elizabethan England. Rosalind is a woman who takes her fate into her own hands, cross-dresses (something that was undeniably frowned upon in Elizabethan England and associated with prostitution), and puts her love-interest to the test to see if he is worthy of being her husband. It is especially fascinating that Shakespeare tackled these gender norms as women in Elizabethan England were fighting for more expansive rights. Elizabethan scholar Jean E. Howard writes “The play shows a woman manipulating those representations [of femininity] in her own interest….teaching her future mate how to get beyond certain ideologies of gender to more enabling ones.” (“Crossdressing, the Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern England,” Shakespeare Quarterly. 1988). This portrayal of Rosalind as an empowered woman is what has drawn audiences to this play for over four-hundred years.

Jaques, the melancholy lord, is one of the most complex and widely debated characters in Shakespeare. His name (pronounced JAY-kweez) is controversial. The alternate pronunciation “Jakes” means toilet because his philosophy is similar to what one might find there. It is easy to dismiss Jaques as a self-indulgent faux philosopher. This is certainly a popular choice. However, in digging deeper into the history of the time, Jaques can also be read as a lost soul. In 1598, the year prior to the first performance of As You Like It, Elizabeth’s court went about cleansing the kingdom of subversive ideas which included book burning. Shakespeare’s friends and contemporaries were victims of this purging. Many were banished- their lives and careers ruined. In Jaques we see these lost authors, poets, and philosophers filled with bitterness about their state. Shakespeare gives Jaques one of the most famous speeches in English literature, “All the world’s a stage.” This speech is not related to anything that happens in As You Like It. Scholars widely regard this speech as Shakespeare taking an opportunity to share his personal beliefs. It’s hard to dismiss Jaques as a self-indulgent hipster when Shakespeare entrusts him with such brilliant philosophy.

We are left wondering, then, how Shakespeare escaped censure. He protects himself through his portrayal of Duke Senior and by restoring the status quo at the end of the play. In Duke Senior we see a giving, thoughtful, and undeniably positive portrayal of a monarch. If anyone dared to question Shakespeare’s loyalty to the monarchy, he could point to Senior as an example of his true feelings. By the end of the play Shakespeare restores the equilibrium: Rosalind transforms back into a woman (albeit after pretending to marry Orlando while dressed as a man), Oliver and Orlando are brought together through an act of brotherly love, and the deposed Duke Senior’s power is restored thanks to a religious conversion by his brother. No doubt Shakespeare was a brilliant artist, but he was also a savvy and shrewd man who knew the limitations of the time in which he lived. Social commentary was there for those willing to take it, but he always had the right answer for anyone in power.

To purchase tickets for As You Like It visit our ticket website. Performances are April 16,18, 23, and 25 at 7:30pm and April 17 and 24 at 7pm with a talk-back following the show.

Thanks to Dr. Adam Zucker for discussing Jaques with our cast and illuminating this alternate reading of the character.