Literaturwissenschaftliches Proseminar
Dr. Williamson
WS 1997/98

The use of the imagery of archetypes in

Shakespeare’s As you like it

Verena Kischer : [e-mail]
Matrikelnummer: 9504537

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................ 1

2. The archetype in Jaques’ speech of

‘Seven stages in a man’s life’ ............................................ 3

2.1. Orlando - the archetypal character ........................... 4

2.2. Oliver - an archetypal character? ............................. 7

3. Jaques’ speech - a charicature ......................................... 8

4. Conclusion ......................................................................... 9

5. Bibliography ...................................................................... 11

6. Index .................................................................................. 13

1.Introduction

Characters have always been and still are the focal point of every play. This is not

surprising, since it is they who make up the whole story. Judging by the way they talk and

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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gesticulate, they do not only determine their own personality but they also develop the

plot, the social context, the atmosphere and the theme of the whole play.

Language is the most important factor, when it comes to identifying and

analysing a certain character type. The picture that we, as the reader, get

of a character is, on the one hand, a reflection of what he says, and, on

the other hand, of how he says it. This will become clear if we look at the

opening scene of As you like it. Here, Orlando complains in an inexorable

stream of words about his upbringing - if he has had one at all -, in which

he was treated like the black sheep of the family.

He keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more
properly, stays me here at home unkept...His horses
are better bred, for, besides that they are fair with
their feeding, they are taught their manage. (1.1. 6-11)

This extract from Orlando’s first speech is ‘a shout of protest.’ (Doebler,

111) In twenty-three lines Orlando gives vent to his wrath, a wrath he has

choked back for much too long. He tries to portray himself as an

uneducated and foolish person, a person who has been kept like a menial.

Yet, it is made quite clear to the reader that this is not the case at all.

Orlando draws a parallel with his brother’s cattle, thus, becoming aware of

the fact that even the horses and oxen are superior to him, for ‘they are

taught their manage.’ (1.1. 11) Orlando chooses here the word ‘manage’,

a technical term that derives from the French word ‘manege’

(Shakespeare, Commentary) referring to the action and paces to which a

horse is trained in the riding-school, particularly for military purposes.

Orlando expresses himself in such a sophisticated manner, which a

person who had not obtained a good education would have never been

able to do. But it is not only the choice of words used that suggest that

Orlando is actually far from being reduced to the state of an animal, but it

is the length of this passage as well. Orlando does not get rid of his anger

by simply throwing together a few sentences - I am so stupid. I have never

had a good education, for which I loathe my brother -, but he does that in a

much more round-about and sophisticated manner. This can be easily

exemplified by looking at the individual sentences of this first speech. No

matter which one we pick out, every single one is at least four lines long.

Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the
something that nature gave me his countenance seems

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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to take from me: he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me
the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines
my gentility with my education. (1.1. 15-19)

All that Orlando states within these five lines is the fact that his brother

denies him everything he is actually entitled to. But he did not need 49

words to say so.

By looking at the language Orlando uses, the reader can surmise that,

despite his lack of formal education, he is very well aware of formal

manners and is by no means as uneducated as he takes himself for. This

assumption that the reader makes right at the very beginning of the play is

also confirmed by his brother Oliver. In a soliloquy Oliver broaches the

subject that he ‘hates nothing more than he [Orlando]. Yet he is gentle,

never schooled and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts

enchantingly beloved.’ (1.1. 154-59) Since a soliloquy is a monologue that

conveys a character’s thoughts or other information to the audience whilst

no other characters are on stage, we can assume his speech to be

credible. Thus, the reader does not place his trust in Orlando by taking

everything he says for granted. It is the language Orlando uses that

reveals his personality.

This is one way of analysing a character’s personality. Another way,

one that complements the first one, occurs by means of expectations. This

simply means that we already have a pre-conceived notion or idea in our

minds of how a certain character should behave, act, etc. This is based on

our personal experience as well as on the force of habit. We have learned

that, in a play, a whole range of characters exist which are all organised in

a particular pattern. There is the protagonist of the play, a young, beautiful,

innocent person. Then a mean, wicked scoundrel known as antagonist, a

brave soldier, a foolish lover, a lonesome father, an uneducated fool, etc.

We all have an idea of how these types of characters ought to behave. In

other words, we place them in different categories, where each category

represents one prototype, one archetype.

2. The archetype in Jaques’ speech of ‘Seven stages in a

man’s life’

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An archetype is ‘the original pattern or model from which all things of

the same kind are copied or on which they are based.’ (Flexner, s.v.

archetype) Now, archetypes do not only occur in the fictitious world of a

play in the form of certain character patterns, but they are also present in

real life. Jaques, the second Son of Sir Rowland the Boys, realises that

every human being has to pass through various stages in life, each of

which has an archetypal function, i.e. in each phase of life we are

expected to behave in a certain, almost inescapable manner. This, Jaques

brings home to the reader in a vivid description of ‘the seven stages in a

man’s life.’

And all the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

Then, the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school; and then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow; then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth; and then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances,
And so he plays his part; the sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound; last Scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

(2.7. 140-167)

Jaques sees life as a stage-play with seven acts, each act representing

an important phase in life. Stage one, he describes as infancy, followed by

stage two defined as childhood. In stage three we find the sighing lover

and in stage four the swearing soldier. Stage five deals with man following

a profession, stage six with man at an advanced age and, finally, stage

seven, with man in the last stages of life. This system is clearly laid out

and represents a kind of order in our lives. Everyone of us has to undergo

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these changes, one after the other, and no matter which one we think of, a

certain idea associated with this particular stage enters our head.

In stage four, for instance, comes ‘the lover, Sighing like a furnace, with

a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow;’ (2.7. 148-150). This is

exactly the stage, Orlando and Oliver are in, with the only difference being

that in the case of Orlando it becomes obvious right at the very beginning

of the play.

2.1. Orlando, the archetypal character

Orlando is a good-looking¹ young man, who is head over heels in love.

Due to a fatal intrigue of his brother Oliver, he has to leave the court to

seek his fortune elsewhere, and he does so with fearless bravery and

boldness. Upon arriving in the Forest of Arden, Orlando hangs poems in

praise of his beloved Rosalynd on trees. After a short game of disguise,

which Rosalynd initiates in order to put Orlando’s love to a test, they get

happily married.

Throughout the play Orlando behaves in every possible way how we,

having this archetypal concept of stage four of Jaque’s speech in mind,

would expect him to. But let us look at the way in which he fulfils this

expected archetypal pattern in more detail.

As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed
me by will, but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest,
charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well;
(1.1. 1-4.)

This first speech by Orlando, who is the romantic hero of the play, is the

opening scene of Shakespeare’s As you like it. Upon reading the first four

¹ Rosalynd indicates that Orlando has not only defeated his component Charles, but that

his charm and good-looks have ’overthrown’ (1.2. 243) her as well.

lines, the reader finds himself situated right in the middle of the story of the

two brothers. Shakespeare did not start off with a lengthy description of

how Sir Rowland de Boys’ death came about, but plunged right into the

action. In other words, he started in medias res. So, all we get to know is

that Orlando was supposed to obtain a thousand crowns from his father

which his elder brother keeps for himself. It is merely due to Orlando

reaching manhood that he realises that he has to do something about his

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miserable situation, for he has been treated unfairly and unjustly by his

brother Oliver. Whereas Jaques, the third son of Sir Rowland the Boys,

has had the pleasure of obtaining a good education, Orlando has not. The

latter was kept ‘rustically at home’ in a manner ‘that differs not from the

stalling of an ox.’ (1.1. 6-10) He was exploited

by the ‘older generation’ in the person of an eldest
brother. Ever since the death of their father Oliver
has treated Orlando shamelessly, denying him a
relevant education by setting him to mindless tasks.
(Doebler, 111)

Orlando recalls that even the horses and the oxen led a better life and

that all he basically gets from his brother, is the right to grow.

But Orlando is not at all the uneducated and foolish backwoodsman he

sees in himself. He is the more noble one and, despite less power, the

stronger one, according to Ornstein, the one with ‘chivalric manliness.’

(Ornstein, 148) This reveals itself in two ways: physical strength as well as

moral courage.

Orlando’s physical strength becomes visible to the reader in many

instances. The first two and most obvious ones are when Orlando fights

with Oliver, on the one hand, and with Duke Frederick’s wrestler Charles,

on the other hand. He defeats both of them. In the quarrel with Oliver,

Orlando ‘seizes him by the throat.’ (1.1. 50) When Oliver utters ‘Let me go,

I say’ (1.1. 61), we know that Oliver has won. As far as the wrestling with

Charles is concerned, Orlando’s strength becomes even more visible to

the reader. When Rosalynd encourages Orlando with the words ‘Now

Hercules be thy speed, young man!’ (1.2. 197), she invokes the typical

archetype of strength, namely Hercules. Since the reader sympathises

with Orlando, he is very likely to equip him with ‘Hercules-like’ features and

as we find out a few lines later, the strength of Hercules has been really

applied to Orlando. When Duke Frederick shouts ‘Bear him away’ (1.1.

208), we know that Charles is defeated.

In the Forest of Arden Orlando also displays his bravery. When Orlando

and Adam have arrived in the forest, Adam is exhausted and extremely

weak from lack of food. Without hesitation Orlando threatens to kill Duke

Senior and his followers - ‘He dies that touches any of this fruit’ (2.7. 99) -,

who are sitting around a table, just about to have something to eat.

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Finally, Orlando, who had found Oliver sleeping in the wood, does not

even recoil from defending him from a lioness. Oliver recounts that

‘kindness, nobler ever than revenge, And nature, stronger than his just

occasion, Made him give battle to the lioness.’ (4.3. 129-131) That this

undertaking was extremely dangerous becomes clear, since Oliver does

not mention a weapon in his report. This leads to the assumption that

Orlando must have killed the lioness with his bare hands. He even

wounded himself. ‘Here upon his arm The lioness had torn some flesh

away, Which all this while had bled.’ (4.3. 147-149)

But Orlando’s physical courage is matched by a moral courage, which is

especially evident at the very beginning of the play. Here he stands up to

his brother by giving vent to his feelings. For so many years he had not

dared to fight back against all injustice that had been done to him. But

finally, he builds up enough courage and defends himself.

I am no villain: I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland the Boys;
he was my father, and he is thrice a villain that says such a
father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I would not take
this hand from thy throat till this other had pulled out thy tongue
for saying so; thou hast railed on thyself. (1.1. 53-58)

Orlando also shows moral courage when he garnishes the forest tress

with the most ridiculous love poems without letting a single tree be spared.

He totally ignores Jaques, who pokes fun at his writings. ‘I pray you, mar

no more trees with writing love- songs in their barks.’ (3.2. 253) In spite of

having less power, Orlando is the stronger one, strong in both senses:

physically and mentally.

In the course of the play Orlando’s courage and his love to Rosalynd

are constantly put to the test, but he manages to tackle all kinds of tasks

so perfectly well, just as we would expect from a lover. Initially, he is

confronted with sheer insoluble problems, but due to his courage and

boldness, his faith and love, finally, everything takes a turn for the better

and there is no obstacle to a marriage. In other words, Orlando ‘represents

all that is virtuous in opposition to all that is corrupt.’ (Doebler, 117)

2.2. Oliver - an archetypal character?

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Oliver, by contrast, is sly and crafty. When Charles expresses his fear

that Orlando might be hurt in the fight, Oliver fires back that Orlando is ‘the

stubbornest young fellow of France’ (1.1. 132-33) and, what is more, ‘a

villainous contriver against me, his natural brother.’ (1.1. 135) He also

makes Charles believe that if Orlando does not gain honour at Charles’

expense by defeating him, he will keep at him until he is dead.

For if thou dost him any slight disgrace, or if he do
not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise
against thee by poison, entrap thee by some treacherous
device, and never leave thee till he hath ta’en thy life
by some indirect means or other. (1.1. 138-44)

With this act of cunning, Oliver wants Orlando to be assassinated. The

one and only reason why Oliver behaves so unnaturally towards his

brother is because he is terribly afraid that Orlando might put one over on

him, for Oliver is obsessed with wealth and power. It is he, after all, who

has a hold over their father’s inheritance and he does not see why he

should split up his fortune amongst others. Oliver is such an unscrupulous

tyrant, occupied with the issue of power, that he does not even possess an

ounce of warm-heartedness.

The selfishness and lust for power that prevail in Oliver are, however,

his downfall. When Duke Frederick sends him off to seek Orlando, the

self-destructive nature of Oliver’s qualities is shown. Upon telling the Duke

that ‘[he] never loved...[his] brother in...[his] life’ (3.1. 14), the Duke

answers ‘More villain thou’ (3.1. 15) and orders his officers to

‘turn...[Oliver] going.’ (3.1. 18)

In the case of Oliver we are not dealing with a harmonious kind of

character, since he violates our preconceived idea of the ‘ideal lover’ by

‘leaving the track.’ His malice and viciousness destroy the whole harmony,

the whole order of the play, which leaves behind an uneasy feeling with

the reader.

Even though Oliver and Orlando are brothers, they have distinct

personalities and it is not until the very end that Oliver becomes aware of

his evil personality and mends his ways. This happens by means of

conversion. When Orlando goes to great length to rescue his brother from

a lioness, there is nothing to stop the reconciliation of the two brothers,

during which Oliver undergoes a change of heart. So, the character

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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change that takes place in Oliver - as well as in Duke Frederick - is a

sudden one, with no preceding inner struggle or self-doubt.

In the twinkling of an eye, Oliver is converted
from being a murderous, avaricious scoundrel
with no redeeming characteristics into a pleasant
and acceptable husband for Celia. (Muir, 88)

All of a sudden Oliver is converted and just as quickly falls in love with

Celia, Rosalynd’s cousin and Duke Frederick’s daughter. The reader can

finally breathe a sigh of relief, when the treacherous and ungrateful tyrant

has found his way back to where he belongs.

3. Jaques’ speech - a caricature

Jaques is the only one who realises that life does not always take its

normal course, neither in the fictitious world of a play nor in real life. In his

speech, which is a caricature, he states that, though certain archetypal

patterns are imposed on every individual, he does not believe in the

existence of an archetypal character, since ‘every single character...is as

much an individual as those in Life (sic!) itself; it’s impossible to find any

two alike.’ (Popper, 25) This becomes quite clear when we look at Jaques’

speech, which ridicules man’s preposterous behaviour.

Instead of waxing stronger...and flourishing biologically,
the babe pukes up his milk. Instead of delighting in his
increasing mastery of his intellectual (letters), artistic (lyre),
and physical (wrestling) powers, the schoolboy creeps
unwillingly to...[school]. Instead of getting a wife with child,
the lover expends his sexual vigor in sighs and woeful ballading.
Instead of successful military conquest, the soldier is suicidally
obsessed with personal honour and is futilely bellicose and
quarrelsome. Instead of being a productive and effective public
and private citizen, economical in the original Aristotelian sense,
[man] is an epicurean justice vain of his apophthegms and the
cut of his beard. The old man...is now incapable of any kind of
activity: educational, sexual, martial, the regulative and
providential activity of the active man. At the end he is able to do
nothing. (Allen, 340-41)

Every stage described has an extremely negative connotation leaving

no place for joy or happiness.

Yet, in the play, the speech is juxtaposed by dramatic events that show

that some characters contradict Jaques’ speech. Let us take Adam, for

instance. He would perfectly fit into this sixth pattern, a ‘lean and slippered

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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pantaloon...his youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk

shank, and his big manly voice...pipes And whistles in his sound.’ (2.7.

159-64) Yet, this old servant does not resemble this described pattern at

all. Though he ‘look[s] old, yet...[he is]...strong and lusty.’ (2.3. 47) He

proves his courage by offering Orlando his whole fortune of 500 crowns - ‘I

have five hundred crowns...Take that.’ (2.3. 38;43) - and by accompanying

him to the Forest of Arden, leaving a secure life behind. ‘Let me go with

you.’ (2.3.53), Adam says.

Real life, however, is not like a romance with a happy ending, but in real

life the archetypal pattern is hardly ever fulfilled. And that is what Jaques

wants us to become aware of, namely that people are puzzling,

inscrutable human beings, each of whom is an individual.

4. Conclusion

In the previous chapters I have been trying to comment on two

important points that follow from Jaques’ speech:

Firstly, I wanted to prove that in every piece of fictitious art the characters

are organised in a particular pattern, a pattern that we, as the reader, are

totally aware of. This is necessary, since the reader is already used to a

certain characterisation, which (s)he feels comfortable with. In the case of

As you like it, I chose Orlando to illustrate how he fulfils the archetypal

function that is inflicted on him. He shows courage, boldness as well as

strength.

Oliver, however, violates his pattern from the very beginning onwards.

He tries to deviate from the role which the reader believes he should act

out. But in the end he cannot help but give in and he does so almost

unconsciously. It just happens to him. This is simply because a play and

its characters have to stick to certain conventions.

Secondly, I pointed out that Jaques is very well aware of the importance

of the archetypal patterns, since they put the reader at ease and make his

life much more comfortable. But Jaques also realises that in real life it is

sheer impossible to conform to this expected pattern. This he brings home

to the reader by ridiculing every single stage in life. He shows that human

beings are inscrutable. That is why we always have to be prepared for

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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new changes, since ‘we know what we are, but know not what we may

be.’ (Shakespeare - Hamlet, 4.5. 44)

5. Bibliography

Books and articles available

Allen, Michael J. B., ‘Jaques against the Seven Ages of the Proclan Man’, MLQ:
A Journal of Literary History, 42 (1981), 331-346.

Bradford, Alan Taylor, ‘Jaques’s Distortion of the Seven-Ages Paradigm’, SQ,
27 (1976), 171-176.

Doebler, John, ‘Orlando: Athlete of Virtue’, ShS: An Annual Survey of
Shakespearian Study and Production, 26 (1973), 111-117.

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

12

Hutchinson, D. S., ‘The Cynicism of Jaques: A New Source in Spenser’s
Axiochus?’, N&Q, 39 (1992), 328-330.

Flexner, Stuart B., ed., The Random House Dictionary of the English Language,
2

nd

edition (New York, 1987).

Kay, Dennis, Shakespeare - his life, work and era (London, 1992).

Muir, Kenneth, Shakespeare’s Comic Sequence (Liverpool, 1979).

Ormerod, David, ‘Orlando, Jaques, and Maurice Sceve’, N&Q, 36 (1989),
325-327.

Ornstein, Robert, Shakespearean Comedies (New York, 1986).

Pope, Alexander, ‘Critics on Shakespeare’, in Andrews, W. T., ed., Readings
on Literary Criticism (London, 1973), 24-25.

Rogers, Pat, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature (Oxford,
1987).

Schabert, Ina, ed., Shakespeare-Handbuch (Stuttgart, 1992).

Shakespeare, William, As you like it, ed. by Oliver, H. J., The New Penguin
Shakespeare (London, 1968).

Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, ed. By Schücking, L.L.,
William Shakespeare Complete Edition, 4 vols. (Darmstadt, 1996).

Books and articles not available

Bow, John, ‘Orlando in As you like it’, in Brockbank, Philip, ed., Players of
Shakespeare (Cambridge, 1985).

Forker, Charles R., ‘All the World’s a Stage: Multiple Perspectives in Arden’,
Iowa-State-Journal-of-Research, 54 (1980), 421-430.

Hutchings, W., ‘ ”Exits and Entrances”: Ways in and out of Arden’, CritQ, 21
(1979), 3-13.

Kelly, Thomas, ‘Shakespeare’s Romantic Heroes: Orlando Reconsidered’, SQ,
24 (1973), 12-24.

McIntosh, Angus, ‘As you like it: A grammatical clue to character’, A-Review-of-
English-Literature, 4 (1963), 69-81.

Miller, William E., ‘All the World’s a Stage’, N&Q, 10 (1963), 99-101.

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

13

Rickman, Alan, ‘Jaques in As you like it’, in Jackson, Russel and Robert
Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare (New York, 1988).

Thron, Edward Michael, ‘Jaques: Emblems and Morals’, SQ, 30 (1979), 84-89.

Thron, Edward Michael, ‘As you like it: Jaques and Touchstone’, DAI, 29
(1968), 1881A-1882A.

Wolk, Anthony, ‘The Extra Jaques in As you like it’, SQ, 23 (1972), 101-105.

6. Index

A

Adam 10

Archetype 2,3,4,7,9,10

The use of the imagery of archetypes in Shakespeare’s As you like it

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C

Conversion 8

E

Education 1,2,5
Evil 7

I

Injustice 2,5,6

J

Jaques 3,4,8

Jaques’ Speech 3,4,8,9

M

Moral courage 5,6,7

O

Oliver 2,4,5,7,8
Orlando 1,2,4,5,6,7

P

Physical strength 5,6