As You Like It Essay: Violating the Established Social Order

Violating the Established Social Order in As You manage It The recent White House sex scandal raised issues astir(predicate) gender, desire, and an established social order - issues that questioned established social norms and ideas about the king and politics of sex. Our society is not the first to recognize the effects that sexual politics and gender relations have had on social order, however. The workings of William Shakespeare are ample evidence that Elizabethan England was firmly in get h quondam(a) of with these notions. Shakespeares keen observations and careful crafting demonstrate over and over once again that the battle for power is an ever-present one, and that social order is an ever-changing phenomenon. quite often, Shakespeare questions the norms of gender, desire, and social order, and does his best to show that these norms can easily be changed (often with hilarious consequences). As You Like It is a prime example. Rife with usurpations, cross-dressing, fem ale aggressiveness, and counterbalance a god named Hymen, Shakespeare does his best to throw the established norms into disarray. He takes the rules regarding gender, desire, and social disorder completely upside-down. As You Like It shows that, like a hymen, these rules are made to be broken. The catalyst for the chaos the drives the play is sure as shooting the violation of social order. Charles the wrestler tells us, the old Duke is banished by his younger chum salmon the new Duke (I,i,99-100), and we are off and running. The old usurped Duke (Senior) has gone to live in the forest of Arden with several loyal followers, and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England (I,i,116). This allusion to the social outsider who robs from the rich and gives to the poor highlights how th... ...of stops Press, 1946. Harris, Laurie Lamzen, ed. Shakespearean Criticism Volume 5. Detroit Gale Research Company Book Tower, 1984. Holland, Norman. analysis and Shakespeare. mod York McGraw-Hill, 1966. OConnor, Evangeline M. Whos Who and Whats What In Shakespeare. New York Avenel Books, 1978. Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Eds., Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. New York upper-case letter Square Press, 1960. Spurgeon, Caroline. Shakespeares Imagery And What It Tells Us. London Cambridge University Press, 1965. Stevenson, Burton. The Standard Book of Shakespearean Quotations. New York Funk & Wagnalls Company, Inc., 1953. Thaler, Alwin. Shakespeare and Our World. Knoxville, TN University of Tennessee Press, 1966. Webster, Margaret. Shakespeare Without Tears. New York Capricorn Books, 1975.