David Varro
English A1 SL – Mr. Phan
Journal Entry Number 1 – November 22nd 2009
Response to:
When Rosalind tells Orlando that he does not look like a lover, he says that he wants to
make her believe it is true. Is this why he agrees to pretend she is Rosalind and woo her
even though he thinks she is a man? Are there other possible reasons?
In the beginning of As You Like It, Rosalind falls madly in love with Orlando, and surprise
surprise, Orlando falls madly in love with Rosalind. However, the “star crossed lovers” are
separated by a series of unfortunate events only to be reunited in a rather awkward fashion.
Featured in Act III, Scene 2 (it might be Act III, Scene 3 for the rest of you guys) Rosalind
encounters Orlando and Jacques, Monsieur Melancholy, debating the finesse of love. After
the departure of Jacques, Rosalind enters the scene from her hiding spot by asking a favor of
Orlando. “I pray you, what is’t o’clock?” Orlando answers “You should ask me, what time
o’day. There’s no clock in the forest.” To which Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) retorts
“There is no true lover in the forest, else sighing every minute and groaning every hour
would detect the lazy foot of Time as well as a clock”. From their very first time they speak
to each other, we are able to discern that Rosalind is testing Orlando, testing to see whether
or not he is truly in love with his dear Rosalind. This exchange must have been a very
amusing scene back in Shakespeare’s time, where the character of Rosalind is played by a
man, who is acting a woman which is pretending to be a youth. How ironic.
As the scene moves on, Rosalind begins to brag about how she is able to cure individuals, “I
would give him some good counsel, for he seems to have quotidian of love upon him.” This
comment is what triggers Orlando to want to prove and make Rosalind believe that he is
really in love. Thus Orlando agrees to pretend that the youth (Ganymede) is Rosalind and to
woo her even though he thinks she is a man.
There are a number of possibilities to why Orlando agreed to woo Rosalind (who he thinks is
a man). One reason might have been that fact that he actually believed that Rosalind is able
to cure his love sickness. Another possibility as to why he agreed was that Orlando let his
pride get in the way of his judgment in order to prove to the ‘youth’, which has been putting
him down the whole time that he is in fact really in love with Rosalind. Another plausible
response is that this play was intended to be a short comedy, thus looking from outside the
box, Shakespeare might wanted to play around with the idea of one male being attracted to
another male, a term which in school is referred to as being gay. This would have been an
exceptionally amusing concept for the spectators probably because being gay was outlawed
back then; it is a bit unnatural after all.
Just to end on a note, these are just speculations. I don’t believe that there is a right or
wrong answer here because I don’t think that Shakespeare actually wrote an explanatory
book about each and every one of his works explaining what his intention were every other
line. Although I believe that the last idea makes the most sense.