While reading Jaques' big speech in Act 2, Scene 7 of "As You Like It" I was struck by the lack of female inclusion. When he speaks about the seven stages of life Jaques only discusses the life stages of a man. His stages of life include infancy, school boy, lover, soldier, justice, old man, and elderly, disappearing man. These stages are gender specific. He does not even touch on how this concept applies to the lives of women. He discusses a school boy, not a school girl. This seems to be an accurate representation of gender roles during this time period. Women were seen as weak, lesser, inferior, or simply less important.
Over the course of the play women are often pushed aside or considered weak. For example, when Rosalind is dressed as a man she establishes that as a man she should not cry, that action is for the weak petticoated women. However, while the time period and the actions of the play seem to lean towards enforcing the gender roles, if you look closer Shakespeare seems to be mocking them slightly Both of the lead female characters, Celia and Rosalind, have great courage in leaving the court and going into hiding. They are taking on lesser roles to what they were born into and are coping with a changing world. Overall this speech by Jaques brings up interesting concepts to think about while reading the rest of the play.
1 comment:
This is an aspect of the speech I had not thought about. Though women are said to be "merely players," the remainder of the description is certainly focused on the parts played by man. It is interesting to think about what the parts played by women would look like in this time period. Would women's lack of some freedoms make it natural for there to be fewer parts? What if Shakespeare had just chronicled the life of a person and used varying pronouns/gender descriptors in the respective parts? That would be an interesting commentary on gender as a more fluid concept.
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