Contrary Notions of Identity in As You like It - Yavanika

MARK
BRACG HER
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The fool should be a Touchstone who causes the true self to appear,
not a Jaques who rails against imperfection. Jaques's statement - "I
will through and through / Cleanse the foul body of th' infected world,
/ If they wil patiently receive my medicine" (II.vii.59-61)-sounds
like the manifesto of a satiric playwright and issues from the very self
of exclusion which it is the fool's role in Shakespeare to open: Jaques
the satirist is able to view human action only from the single perspective
of absolute righteousness, and Duke Senior speaks for the Shakespearean
vision, and against the satiric perspective, when he chastises
Jaques: "Most mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin" (II.vii.64). Relativism,
or the achievement of a plurality of perspectives, leads, in the
Shakespearean vision, not to skepticism and cynicism, but to love.
The satiric vision is thus contrary to Shakespeare's not only in that
it denies the ultimate value of love,28 but also because it encourages
and reinforces the attitude of the exclusive self, which is always
attempting a put-down or expulsion of the other, be it physical,
social, or verbal. In satiric comedy, the breaking apart of an exclusive
self is done in order to destroy that self and thus increase the cohesion
and power of another exclusive self. This is the ultimate goal not only
of the antagonists but also of the protagonists, and even of the playwright
himself, a fact which is manifested by the observation that the
triumph of the protagonist is embodied as an overthrow rather than a
conversion and inclusion of the antagonist. In Shakespearean comedy,
on the other hand, the main purpose in attacking an exclusive self
is to open it up and allow it to achieve the fullness of its being in
relatedness with other selves, a goal which finds expression in a
denouement of conversion and inclusion rather than dominance.
The greater inclusiveness promoted by As You Like It is enhanced
not only by the jarring of the fool but also by the disguise or roleplaying
the characters engage in. Like puns and wit, disguise in
Shakespeare's comedy fosters greater inclusiveness in the audience as
well as in the characters. While in satiric comedy we the audience gain
pleasure primarily at the expense of the victim of disguise or as a
result of the abandonment of the disguise-both of which play to the
self of exclusion - in Shakespearean comedy a greater measure of our
delight in disguise derives from the energy produced by the plurality
of perspectives which disguise inaugurates. A consummate instance
of such an experience occurs when Rosalind disguised as Ganymede
plays1 Rosalind, while Orlando plays himself. The multiple perspectives
constellated by this encounter force us to see every word uttered
by the characters in several ways at once, and as a result, we are
28See Peter G. Phialas. "Comic Truth in Shakespeare andJonson," SAQ62 (Winter
1963):78-91, for a discussion ofJonson's treatment of love.
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