As You Like It

As You Like It Plot Synopsis O rlando, youngest son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys, has been deprived of his inheritance by his jealous older brother Oliver. When Orlando demands the inheritance, Oliver decides to have him killed in a wrestling match the next day. Orlando and Oliver live in the country of Duke Frederick, who has just usurped the throne from his brother, Duke Senior. The banished Duke Senior and his followers (including the melancholy Jaques) are living in the nearby Forest of Arden. Duke Senior’s daughter Rosalind has remained behind at Frederick’s court because of her friendship with Frederick’s daughter Celia. The next day, Orlando wins the wrestling match in front of the court. When Frederick learns that Orlando is the son of a former enemy of his, he coldly dismisses him, but Rosalind and Orlando fall in love at first sight. However, both of them are too shy to confess their feelings. Duke Frederick orders Rosalind to leave his court at once. He is afraid that people will rally to her side and demand that her father be brought back to the throne. Because of her affection for her cousin, Celia decides to accompany her into exile. For the sake of safety, Rosalind disguises herself as a man and calls herself Ganymede. Celia disguises herself as the servant girl Aliena. The girls decide to take Touchstone, the court jester, with them, and they set out to find Rosalind’s father in the Forest of Arden. Having been badly used by his brother, Orlando also decides to flee. All the adventurers meet in the forest where Orlando joins the band of Duke Senior and, in pastoral surroundings, gives full voice to his newly-awakened love for Rosalind by attaching love poems to the trees. These are discovered by the disguised Rosalind, who teases Orlando about his love and accuses him of disfiguring the forest. As Ganymede, she tells Orlando that he can be cured of his love if he will come every day and woo him (Ganymede), as though he were addressing Rosalind. Although he doesn’t want to be “cured,” Orlando agrees. Cupid has also been busy elsewhere: Touchstone has fallen in love with Audrey, a country girl, while Phebe, a shepherdess, has fallen in love with Ganymede/Rosalind, despite the faithful attentions of the young shepherd Silvius. Meanwhile, believing that Orlando and the girls have run off together, Duke Frederick orders Oliver to find his brother on pain of losing his lands. The two brothers become reconciled when Orlando saves Oliver’s life in the forest. Oliver falls in love with Aliena/Celia and the two plan to wed. When Orlando complains that it is bitter to look at happiness through another man’s eyes, Ganymede/Rosalind promises to solve his problems. On the next day Rosalind reveals her true identity to her father and to Orlando. Orlando will be married to her, Oliver to Celia, Touchstone to Audrey, and, when she sees Rosalind is really a woman, Phebe agrees to marry Silvius. Just as the ceremonies are about to begin, word is brought that Duke Frederick has had a change of heart and has decid- ed to become a hermit, returning to his brother the throne stolen from him. Jaques, Duke Senior’s melancholy follower, decides to remain in the forest, and the rest return joyfully to the court.