Contrary Notions of Identity in As You like It - Yavanika

MARK
BRACHER
237
conceit that "Rosalind of many parts / By heavenly synod was
devised; / Of many faces, eyes, and hearts" (III.ii. 149-51). That the
multiplicity of the self "by heavenly synod was devised" would indicate
that the essence, the ultimate nature of the self, is a plurality and
not a monistic unity. If a self exists as a closed monadic unit, it lives in
perversion of its true nature, for such a mode of being is not what
heaven has devised.31 Here once again Shakespeare has taken a common
motif of satiric comedy-disguise-and transformed it so that it
supports a vision of human being that is contradictory to that of
satiric comedy.
III
In addition to appropriating elements of satiric comedy and transforming
them into ancillaries ofinclusiveness, As You Like It also promotes
the self of inclusion by portraying its victory over the self of
exclusion. The greatest triumph of the inclusive self occurs at the end
of Act IV, with the rescue and conversion of Oliver. Knowles observes
that "Orlando's deed symbolizes his victory over the savage egotism
and jealousy that his brother embodies in the play and with which he
himself is tempted."32 Knowles also sees this action as "a victory over
Satan" for both men,33 and Rene Fortin declares that in his rescue of
Oliver, Orlando is like Christ.34 Whether or not one reads the rescue
scene symbolically (or allegorically) - and there are justifications for
such a reading35-the religious dimensions of the event are significant,
and serve to connect the inclusive self with the self of Christian
love. The utterly selfless act of Orlando shatters the closed self of
Oliver and transforms him into an inclusive self, a transformation of
identity indicated by Oliver's declaration, "'Twas I. But 'tis not I"
(IV.iii.136). Oliver is no longer the same person he was when, as an
exclusive self, he declared, "I never loved my brother in my life"
(III.i. 14). This exclusive self of envy and hatred has been converted
into an inclusive self of love and fellowship, which, Oliver now realizes,
constitutes the true, natural identity of a person: his former self
of envy and hatred he now sees as "unnatural" (line 123), a perversion
of his true being.
By having Oliver, the primary exponent of self-interest, transformed
into a proponent of love, Shakespeare undercuts the satiric
3This plurality of the inclusive self, which is a means of accommodating the other,
is to be sharply distinguished from that opportunistic self which adopts a multitude
of facades simply in order to prey on other selves.
32Knowles, p. 6.
3Ibid., p. 13.
34Fortin, p. 580.
35See Fortin, pp. 572-79, and Knowles. pp. 5-6.
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