As You Like It: Study Questions

General questions

  1. What are the two main settings of the play? What symbolic functions do they have?
  2. How does Orlando show he is in love? What kind of lover is he? (realistic, idealistic, sad, silly, etc.?) What traits does Orlando share with Silvius?
  3. How does Rosalind differ from a conventional romantic heroine? Who is in control of the love story between Orlando and Rosalind?
  4. Jaques is a conventional stereotype of the melancholic in Renaissance literature, a thoughtful, moral, serious type with a satiric wit and a tendency to moroseness.
  5. Touchstone represents another Shakespearean convention: the court jester as wise Fool, who speaks truth through apparently nonsensical utterances.
  6. Examine his "All the world's a stage" speech. What are its main points?
  7. Evaluate the play's conclusion(s). Have the issues (problems/desires) introduced and represented been resolved/fulfilled?

ACT 1

  1. What is Orlando's complaint against his brother Oliver?
  2. What has happened at court? Where is the old Duke now? Where is his daughter?
  3. Why did Charles the wrestler come to see Oliver? What is Oliver's response?
  4. Why does Orlando wrestle Charles? How might we interpret the scene?
  5. Why does Oliver so dislike Orlando?
  6. Why is Rosalind sad? How does Celia try to cheer her up?
  7. What happens in the match between Charles and Orlando?
  8. Why is Duke Frederick displeased when Orlando identifies himself?
  9. Why does Duke Frederick banish Rosalind? Is he correct?
  10. Why will Celia go with Rosalind? Where will they go? How will they be disguised? What names will they use? Who will go with them?

ACT 2

    1. How well is Duke Senior responding to exile in the forest? What bothers him about hunting deer there? 2. How does "the melancholy Jaques" respond to the dying stag? 1. What is Duke Frederick's response to the runaways? 1. What does Adam warn Orlando about? What does Adam offer Orlando? Where are they going? 2. How "original" is the complaining of Silvius for Phoebe? How "realistic" does Silvius seem as a shepherd? 3. What is Corin's complaint when Rosalind/Ganymede and Celia/Aliena ask for food and rest? What solution do they propose? 1. Why does Jaques say he avoids Duke Senior? 1. How does the arrival of Adam and Orlando into the forest parallel that of Rosalind/Ganymede and Celia/Aliena in 2.4? What does Orlando expect from the forest? What kind of place does he take it to be? 2. What happens when Orlando enters? What does he expect to find? What does he find instead?

ACT 3

  1. What is Touchstone's response to country life? How does it differ from Corin's?
  2. What has Rosalind/Ganymede found on the trees? Does she know who put it there?
  3. What does Orlando desire in Rosalind? What do his amorous verses emphasize?
  4. What happens when Celia/Aliena reveals that the lover is Orlando?
  5. How does Rosalind/Ganymede propose to talk to Orlando? Why does she say he can't be the one putting up the poems? How does she propose to cure his love? How does Orlando respond to the idea?
  6. Why does "Ganymede" tell Orlando he needs a "love-cure"?
  7. Who is Audrey? What do we know about her from this scene? Why won't Sir Oliver Mar-text marry them? What is Jaques' response to the proposed marriage of Audrey and Touchstone?
  8. What kind of love is Touchstone most interested in? Why does he choose Audrey? Are they well matched?
  9. How do Silvius and Phoebe fit into the collection of lovers we have met so far? What happens when Rosalind/Ganymede talks to them? How does Phoebe respond to Rosalind/Ganymede?

ACT 4

  1. Analyze Rosalind's strategy with Orlando. Describe her methods/aims.
  2. How, in general, would you characterize Rosalind/Ganymede's views about love?
  3. What message has Phoebe sent to Rosalind/Ganymede via Silvius?
  4. What has happened to Oliver since we saw him last? What has happened to Orlando?

ACT 5

  1. How does Orlando respond to Oliver's love of Celia/Aliena? How does Rosalind respond to his new seriousness?
  2. What compacts has Rosalind/Ganymede made with the others? What one didn't we know about before?
  3. What news does Jaques de Boys bring to the group? What is Jaques' response. Why won't he join the celebration?