"Cliff Notes - As You Like It" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Touchstone's name describes his function. A touchstone was used to
test the purity of precious metals--that is, to determine the
genuineness or quality of a thing. This fool unmasks pretension and
foolishness wherever he sees it. His primary technique is mimicry.
For example, the first time he hears Silvius carrying on about Phebe,
Touchstone does a funny imitation of the lovesick shepherd. He
accomplishes two things: He makes the audience laugh, and he points
out the absurdity of Silvius's behavior.

He uses the same approach on the melancholy Jaques, who finds sad
morals everywhere. Touchstone mimics him by delivering a gloomy but
meaningless sermon about the consequences of time passing, making
Jaques believe he's found a kindred spirit. Touchstone reveals that
Jaques's pronouncements may not be as profound as Jaques would like
people to believe.

Touchstone doesn't always mimic the person he's talking to. With
Corin and William, he imitates a learned man from the city. His
manners and his "learned examples" are all nonsense, but the
shepherds are fooled. Shakespeare uses Touchstone to clarify one of
the satiric points of As You Like It--that real shepherds are not
"poetical," like their counterparts in pastoral romances.

Touchstone's courtship of Audrey parodies the pure, spiritual love
that Silvius talks about by demonstrating the opposite extreme.
Silvius sees love as something poetic and marriage as the
fulfillment of a great spiritual longing. Touchstone regards
marriage as a way to fulfill one's sexual urges. He purposely
chooses an ugly woman and clearly states his intention to leave her
once he tires of her.

As you read each of Touchstone's scenes, ask yourself, Whom is the
fool mimicking? What point is he making?


AS YOU LIKE IT: OLIVER

Orlando's brother Oliver starts the play as a villain. When you
first meet him, he is arrogant and cruel. He has stolen Orlando's
inheritance by refusing to give him a gentleman's education or the
money that their late father intended for Orlando. When Orlando wins
acclaim by defeating Charles the wrestler, the jealous Oliver plots
to murder his brother.

Several times in Act I, Oliver is called "unnatural." That means he
respects neither his dead father's wishes nor the laws of God,
according to both of which he should love and care for his brother.
His ill treatment of the faithful old servant, Adam, demonstrates
his contempt for all the Old World virtues.