The Androgyne in Shakespeares As You Like It :: Shakespeare As You Like It Essays

The Androgyne in As You Like It The androgyne is a strong figure that mentally joins the womanly and male characteristics together as one (American Heritage). Androgyny does not only refer to the physical senses it in addition refers to the cultural and social aspects of daily life. There are two main(prenominal) types of androgyny that were applied during the Renaissance which are referred to as mythic and satirical androgyny (Orgel, 38). Satiric androgyny mainly deals with feminized male figures and unfixed, unstable exclusive identities, and is essentially negative, (Hermaphrodites, 1). Mythic androgyny consists of cross-dressers, water imagery and the fluid several(prenominal) identicalness, and is essentially positive, (Hermaphrodites, 2). As You Like It is based on the concepts included in Mythic androgyny. We find that Rosalind dresses as a man after she is banished from the court, nevertheless her actions continue to revert back to her female characteristics. Her d isguise would be considered cross-dressing and her ever-changing could be considered as being the fluid soul identity. The fluid individual identity is a way of saying that she changes her own identity. When Rosalind is talking with Celia or Touchstone, she takes on her female identity, but when Rosalind talks with Orlando she takes on the male identity of Ganymede. As You Like It starts taboo in the court, where Rosalind in a female dressed as a female, and Orlando is a male dressed as a male. Rosalind is being treated like a woman and she all the way acts like one. She attends the wrestling match, where her uncle, Duke Frederick, asks her and Celia, her cousin, to try on talk Orlando out of fighting(a) in the match. This is the point when Rosalind and Orlando meet, coerce, and begin having feelings for each other. Orlando does in fact down Charles, the Dukes wrestler. In this situation, Rosalind is portraying a female with typical female characteristics and Orlando is carryin g out his male characteristics. In the court, they are in there true social roles, but once they enter the forest of Ardenne those roles are dramatically changed. The androgynous woman literally incorporates the independence that the male was designed to exemplify foregoing to the introduction of woman, but the male who depends on a woman becomes effeminate and is perceived as missing something in the outline of maleness, (Rose, 25). While in the forest of Ardenne, Rosalind is dressing in and taking on the male persona.