Thursday, February 16, 2012

"As You Like It" - antagonists (or lack thereof)

"...for my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept; for call you that keeping fora gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better..." Act I.i.1

In "As You Like It", I feel as if there is really no true antagonist. The story starts out with Oliver treating his younger brother, Orlando like dirt. Oliver basically tricks Orlando into fighting in this wrestling match that Oliver believes Orlando will lose badly. Then, when his plans don't work out accordingly, he chases after him. But that pursuit quickly becomes pushed to the background. Another character I believed was going to be the antagonist was Duke Jr. But, like Oliver, that was not really made that prominent to the audience. In addition, there was no real pursuit. There was not a sense of a conflict, battle, or anything that required the characters confronting their enemies. At the end of the play everyone just got along all fine and dandy and there was no real resolution. Shakespeare clearly showed his laziness in the the lack of real antagonists.

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