Blog Shakespeare

 

To develop the character of Rosalind I repeated the scene doing a variety of different activities to take my mind off the words and see what happens to the text. Firstly I laid on the floor and rolled over every time I felt it change subject or had a new thought. The motion of the rolling and the effect it had on the voice was interesting as it made the emphasise go on different words which sometimes worked better than what you would have originally thought. Then we tried saying what us as the character means in modern language. This made me understand the language more which made me portray the scene in a more believable way. The next exercise I did was to draw a pattern I see on a piece of paper whilst I say the speech, this distracted me so the speech became less stressed which on some lines worked really well but as a whole lost the urgency of the scene. Finally I also said my lines whilst writing a letter, again pausing when there was a new thought. This was similar to the first exercise I did but the words didn’t change in intonation as much because I wasn’t physically exerting myself. Throughout all of these small, quick activities I found lots of different bits that worked at different paces and pausing in places that I hadn’t first thought of.

Language (as you like it)

As You Like It

In Jacques ‘all the worlds a stage’ speech, Shakespeare uses the assonance of different vowel sounds to create a rhythmic pattern, which makes it easy to listen to, like a song.

‘And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances’

Shakespeare’s also written this verse in iambic pentameter, again making the rhythm flow and it becoming easy to listen to. An exception to this is when he starts a new subject on a line; he has crafted it so it the syllables are a little over 10 so it creates the wrong pattern. This may ‘wake’ people up when they are watching as suddenly the beat they are familiar with has changed. This is very clever as it is a subtle technique to keep the audience engaged. Iambic pentameter is the rhythm of 10 syllables in a line in the sequence of deDum deDum deDum deDum deDum.

When looking at the scene between Rosalind and Orlando, we see a variety of rhetorical devices. When Rosalind speaks she uses alliteration; ‘holiday humour’ and ‘lovers lacking’ this creates a higher status for this character as it makes her speech seem eloquent and well-spoken. In this scene it is opposed by Orlando’s short utterances and repetition of what he has previously said and what Rosalind has previously said. This depicts the social class as Rosalind was higher up than Orlando so she may have a more formal vocabulary. This subtle difference gives Rosalind a more feminine aspect to her even when she is dressed as a boy so there is a contrast between the two 'men'.


 

Research

The globe

The globe doesn’t actually get its name from its circular shape, as all theatres at the time were circular too. It was called ‘The Globe Theatre’ because it told tales from around the globe. It has an open roof because sunlight at the time was the only large scale form of light. This also impacted on the performance aspect as well as the aesthetics, as unlike today the audience were also in the light. Also contrasting to theatre at present was the use of set and scenery. In Shakespeare’s scripts much of the time and places are written, it was difficult to show them any other way. For example where we may change the set to signify we are in a forest, the actor would simply say something like ‘Alas, a forest!’. There is also the use of trap doors; the one underground representing hell or lower classes and the one in the ceiling representing heaven. Aspects of performance in Shakespeare’s plays had definite meaning so they didn’t need explaining. For example if you saw someone coming down from the ceiling you would know they are coming from heaven unlike today where it could just  be used as it’s a good bit of scenery or they could be flying etc.

As you like it

As you like it is a pastoral comedy and it was either written in 1599 or early 1600 but the exact date isn’t known. It wasn’t published until 1623 though but the first performance is believed to be a lot earlier than that, possibly being in 1603 but that is very uncertain.  The story of As You Like It centres around Rosalind and Orlando who want to be together throughout the duration of the play but because Rosalind has been banished by the new duke she chooses to dress as a boy so she can stay in the forest with her cousin Celia. She then meets Orlando as a boy and doesn’t want to reveal her true identity so Orlando believes she is just a male friend. Alongside this is the story of Silvius and Phoebe. Silvius is in love with phoebe but when phoebe sees Rosalind dressed as boy she is determined to be with him/her not Silvius. Touchstone and Audrey also share a story throughout, touchstone taking the clown character. Jacques is the melancholy character who ironically complains about the forest all the time but then is the only one that chooses to stay in the forest at the end. In the end a goddess comes down and marries them all;

Orlando and Rosalind

Touchstone and Audrey

Phoebe and Silvius

And Celia and Orlandos brother, The Dukes son.

In shakespeares time this would have been performed with little set. The pillars in the middle (in The Globe Theatre) would have been used as trees and in this particular performance they may have used moss banks as minimal set.