As You LIke It: Dude Looks Like a Lady, Sorts Everybody Out

Rosalind by R.W. Macbeth (1887) - with a name like that, you just have to draw something from Shakespeare!

I liked my other subtitle idea better: “As You Like It: Four Weddings, No Funeral” – but it didn’t really leave me with a whole lot to say.

The conflicts in As You Like It, in one sense, center around two feuding sets of brothers. Duke Frederick has usurped the Dukedom of his older (and aptly named) brother Duke Senior, while elder brother Oliver has neglected (and quickly steps up his villain-game by trying to murder) his own younger and better-liked brother Orlando.

But these feuds really only bookend the play’s action. The real focus of the play is on the various roadblocks and pitfalls facing certain young would-be-lovers. There are four different couples to marry off by the end of the play, and a lot needs sorting in order for that to happen. There is only one man for the job – and it’s a woman. Ok, it’s a woman dressed like a man. Ok, you got me: if you want to get really technical it’s a man playing a woman playing a man.



In any case, the cross-dressing character in question is Duke Senior’s daughter, Rosalind. As a girl, the guys are into her. As a guy, the girls are into her. As a group, somebody is going to be disappointed.

When Duke Frederick took over, he banished Rosalind’s father (who heads to the forest, a la Robin Hood), but allowed her to stay because of her “best friend forever” status with his own daughter Celia. One night Duke Frederick, the girls, and the rest of the court witness the fearless young Orlando school some beefcake David-versus-Goliath-style in the wrestling ring. Rosalind and Orlando each leave smitten with the other. Unfortunately, not long after, Frederick gets in one of his moods, storms in and tells Rosalind “Leave now or die.” Much like Diddy’s “Vote or Die” campaign, the ultimatum feels a little extreme – but whatever.


Diddy getting all hyperbolic.

Celia decides to go with her BFF Rosalind into exile, and here things start to really get interesting. They plan to follow Rosalind’s father into the Forest of Arden, but this is dangerous travel for two young ladies, so Rosalind decides to dress like a dude for their protection. Celia takes on her own false, yet still female, identity, and they bring the court jester with them. There goes the forest.
Orlando is also run out of town (from which he flees into the aforementioned forest)by his brother’s determination to kill him (now sanctioned by Duke Frederick, who doesn’t like Orlando either). Orlando starts posting love letters on trees in the forest [sorry, trees], and meets up with the dis-guy-zed Rosalind.

Rosalind, not quick to shed her fake male persona, proceeds to put Orlando to work in winning her over as she pretends to be a dude pretending to be her. [Yes, now our protagonist is a man playing a woman playing a man playing that woman.] Meanwhile, the court jester (and Disney-owned movie label) Touchstone starts mixing it up with the shepherd folk in the forest, and finds himself a lady who is actually a lady (though he feels compelled to lead her around by the hand because she isn’t terribly bright). Another shepherdess, Phoebe, falls for Dude-Rosalind while he/she gets super-raw with her for rejecting the shepherd that actually likes her: “Girl, you should be thanking your lucky stars that he’s into you. You’re straight up ugly.” Dag, Dude-Rosalind! A girl has feelings.

Ah, but there it is! Rosalind’s new gender role isn’t just about looking moderately tough (yet, strangely feminine); it’s about being assertive; taking charge; going from victim to savior (well, that and being strangely feminine).

Speaking of saving though, while the rest of the forest is trying weirdly to pair off, both shady brothers (Duke Frederick and Oliver – remember them? ) have made their way into the forest to kill their respective hated siblings.

But not so fast, you fratricidal maniacs! Oliver stops to take a nap, and a lioness gets ready to kill him as soon as he stirs. Orlando, fortuitously coming into the area and being a ferocious wrestler, fights off the lioness with his bare hands (notice he is now both literally and figuratively sparring with aggressive females); Oliver wakes to see it, and is so moved that he sees the error of his ways. Elsewhere, Duke Frederick, marching with his army, meets an old religious man on the outskirts of the forest [I’m imagining the hobbits meeting the resurrected Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers], talks to him a bit, then decides to become a monk and give everything he took back to his brother.


"You shall not pass - if you want to leave and become a monk with me."

So we had some close calls, but nobody is killing anybody. Everybody gets back what’s theirs. Cue Rosalind setting up the big “it’s me” reveal (a scene which she enters accompanied by Hymen, the god of marriage), and anyone who didn’t previously now realizes that they love the right person. Orlando and Rosalind are in love. His new wingman (and former would-be murderer)Oliver and Celia are in love. That shepherd and his ugly shepherd girl are in love. Touchstone and his dumb shepherd girl are in love. We’ve got the god of marriage with us for goodness sake, so you know what’s on deck: four weddings, no funeral.