NAME_________________________________
July 10, 2003
Strickland/English 378: Shakespeare on Stage 2nd Exam: As You Like It
Please choose one of the following topics, write an essay taking no more than an hour to do the
work, and post it to the space provided in the "Responses" webboard from the course home page
(the address is http://webboard.ilstu.edu/~eng37801/). If you have trouble posting your essay,
send it to me as an email. Exam responses should be posted by Friday, July 11 at 5:00 pm.
(1) In her introduction to As You Like It in the Riverside Shakespeare Anne Barton writes:
As You Like It replaces a developing intrigue, of the kind exemplified by Much Ado about
Nothing or Twelfth Night, with a structure of cunningly juxtaposed characters and
attitudes which Shakespeare has elaborated until it becomes a substitute for plot.
Discuss one or more of these juxtapositions of characters and attitudes.
(2) Drawing upon your reading of Lawrence Stone and Stephen Greenblatt's introduction to the
Norton Shakespeare, discuss the roles of the women in As You Like It in the context of early
modern attitudes about women.
(3) Discuss the use and effects of one or more of the metadramatic techniques (such as the
surrogate dramatist, the interior audience, breaking the illusion of separation between the stage
and the viewing audience, etc.) in As You Like It.
(4) Drawing upon your reading of Lawrence Stone and Stephen Greenblatt's introduction to the
Norton Shakespeare, discuss the issue of primogeniture as represented in As You Like It.
(5) Discuss the role(s) of Touchstone, the fool, and/or Jaques, the Melancholic, in As You Like It.
(6) Discuss some of the convention of pastoral romance and their functions in As You Like It.
(7) Compare any aspect of the staging/production of As You Like It in the Blackhawk Films
version (1936), the BBC version (1982), or the current Illinois Shakespeare Festival production.
(8) Student's choice: Discuss any topic related to As You Like It that you found particularly
interesting but is not covered in the suggested topics above.