6.2.

5 Opposition dynamics
The work begins in full conflict which is deployed in successive oppositions. First, the family
inheritance and Orlando's complaint with Orlando entrusting Adam, his old servant, with the
situation. Second, the political conflict in which the legitimate duke has been dismissed by his
brother, through the conversation between the two cousins. The public / private parallelism is
evident. Oliver plots Orlando's death through a fight and dismisses Adam. For this reason, the
usurping duke vanishes Rosalind.
The court and the urban are governed by a masculine code at the service of power. The parallelism
is reinforced with Orlando, who provokes the aversion of Oliver and Duke Frederick, for which he
flees. Celia and Rosalind also flee and the Celia proposes to play to fall in love and wait resigned
the ups and downs of fortune.
The amusements offered are fighting, inappropriate for the ladies, according to Touchstone, but they
attend, and they know Orlando, who falls in love with Rosalind at first sight. Her uncle banishes her
and Celia and Rosalind decide to go together to meet freedom (to liberty and not to banishment),
due to the world of possibilities that opens before them with the adoption of another identity
through disguise. Celia disguises herself as a poor woman and frees herself from parental despotism
and her new name makes reference to it: Aliena. Rosalind disguises herself as a man because of
their (or her?) potential for appearance and representation and the freedom that women are denied:
The second act is located in Arden and nature is allied to man, which is pre-social. The duke
expresses the nature / culture opposition. Hunting is public and culture, private. The consolation
found is joined by the bucolic song of Amiens, optimism undermined by Jaques, austere moralist.
Arden means refuge and good reception. Orlando bursts in with his sword raised but is surprised at
the affability of his welcome by the Duke. The pastors receive Rosalind and Celia (disguised)
courteously and help them settle.
Rosalind is the catalyst of amorous alchemy. Under her disguise she awakens the love of Phoebe
that holds the heart of Silvius captive without corresponding him. Audrey ignites the passion of
Touchstone and Orlando, in love with Rosalind, receives remedies of love from Ganymede that
offers to replace Rosalind to cure him. Celia, finally, loses her head for a repentant and penitent
Oliver.
The amorous explosion is a pretext for a parody of the poetic conventions of the time and the
expressions of unrequited love of that poetry of which the author himself was a part.
Couples are structured in oppositions. The passion of Touchstone and Audrey is the most physical
and has no romantic pretensions. The fool is allowed to freely say what others are silent about and
mocks the pretensions of truth of the love poetry.
The infatuation of Celia and Oliver falls within the pastoral convention and subverts it. It is inserted
in the naturalism of the forest and the pretence is out of place. Arden is a space of freedom without
patriarchal obstacles. Rosalind decides not to make herself known when she finds her father,
prolonging her independence. She decides when and how to restore her identity, until she makes
sure everything goes according to her wishes. For Tennehouse, the enormous volume of amorous
literature of the time is not explained by a fashion but by the demand of a social class that eagerly
consumed stories whose problems were very familiar with. Nothing is more challenging for men
than the independence of the two cousins who expressed their love relationships naturally.
The pair of shepherds (Silvius and Phoebe) serves as a pretext for a parody of the tyranny of
unrequited love, and Phoebe agrees to marry Silvius if Ganymede can marry her.
The culmination of the opposition game is played by Rosalind and Orlando. To Rosalind the
masculine attire gives her vigour and daring, whereas love makes Orlando effeminate, unlike in the
court, where he was strong and determined, rebellious and fighter. Here he follows meekly the game
of Ganymede who assures him that she will cure his pain.
Shakespeare comically completes the mockery of the excesses of love poetry with a game of
oppositions, in two scenes where he parodies the misogynist clichés of the fabliaux convention. The
‘coup de grace’ is the elision of responsibility for authorship, that is, the speaker is a man, but we
know that his words are those of Rosalind disguised, that is a male character represented by
Rosalind: the disguise allows all kinds of dramatic ironies and games of meaning.
In the first scene, Ganymede sympathizes with Orlando because Orlando is lovesick, giving thanks
for not being a woman. To cure him, he tells her that to cure him of his mental derangement because
of women, the best thing is a good dose of experience of what women really are and that the
experience is attainable through representation of a theme in this play. Like its cathartic potential,
comedy achieved a similar effect by ridiculing vice or error of judgement. This proposes Ganymede
to heal Orlando. The evil is also of the poetic convention.
In the second scene, the lesson is about marriage and the promises of fidelity. When Orlando is
committed to eternal love, Rosalind throws a diatribe (an angry speech or article which is extremely
critical of someones’s ideas or activies) typical of the medieval fabliau:
The spectators attend with Rosalind the drama of Silvius. Old Corin invites him to a small play in
the theatre and is given the opportunity to attend another version of the poetic repertoire of love
conflicts. There Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede.
The complication is expressed in Rosalind's words: "pray you no more of this; tis like the howling
of Irish wolves against the moon (5.2, 92-93). Then she orchestrates the final apotheosis.