Contrary Notions of Identity in As You like It - Yavanika

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MARK BRAC HER 231 that of Rosalind and Celia, is constituted by relationship with and participation in the being of another, as he himself later implies when he defines his identity in terms of relationship, declaring to Orlando: "I am the Duke / That loved your father" (I.vii. 194-95). The most important juxtaposition of these opposing attitudes is found in the wrestling match. A number of the play's commentators have realized the symbolic importance of this event as a prefiguration to the rest of the play.'8 Charles, as Thomas Kelly notes,' is an agent of Oliver and is also aligned with the court of Duke Frederick; he thus functions as the champion of the exclusive, monadic self which Oliver and Frederick have embraced. Indeed, Charles's own words reveal that he, too, has this perspective on the self. When he tells Oliver, "I wrestle for my credit" (I.i. 124), he indicates, as Kelly observes, that "he regards his footing atop Fortune's wheel as a precarious station . which cannot be shared."20 His being is enhanced, in his view, only by diminution of other selves. Orlando seems to embody the contrary view, and Shakespeare points to this contrast by having both Charles and Orlando refer to the wrestler as a "foil" to the youth. Charles says to Oliver, "For your love, I would be loath to foil him, as I must for my own honor if he come in" (I.i. 127-28). "Foil" here, of course, means to defeat or stymie, but the other meaning is present to the audience as well. Orlando uses the word in the same way as Charles, when he says to Rosalind and Celia, "Let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go with me to my trial; wherein if I be foil'd, there is but one sham'd that was never gracious" (I.ii.180-83). But unlike Charles, and indeed unlike Lodge's Rosader at the identical moment, Orlando appears relatively unconcerned about self-about either losing "honor" or gaining "shame." For Charles, in contrast, fights for honor and station, and so does Rosader, whose victory is immediately preceded by his "calling to minde . . . the fame of his Fathers honours, and the disgrace that should fall to his house by his misfortune."2' Again Shakespeare's alteration serves to focus attention on apparent lack of motivation and thus to direct our view toward the nature of the self-here toward Orlando's relative lack of self-interest. Orlando's attitude is further revealed by the fact that Celia's appeal to his self-interest- "We pray you for your own sake to embrace your "See, for example, Thomas Kelly, p. 15. John Doebler, in "Orlando: Athlete of Virtue," ShS 26 (1972): 115, believes that "we should at least consider the possibility of Shakespeare wanting to place a special emphasis upon the wrestling match, making it a thematic introduction to the role he had outlined for Orlando." 9Kelly, p. 15. 20Ibid. My emphasis. 'Bullough, p. 171. This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 13:10:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
232 IDENTITY IN AS YOU LIKE IT own safety and give over this attempt" (I.ii. 173-74)- falls on deaf ears. Orlando's lack of egoism and self-interest even in the act of fighting - that action which we might normally consider to epitomize egoistic self-assertion- contrasts sharply with the heroic selfassertion of Charles, who indulges in the typical boasting of the martial champion. Orlando's victory over Charles thus represents the triumph of unself-centeredness, or openness and inclusiveness. That Orlando's victory is a triumph of the forces of love, or inclusion, over those of self-love, or exclusion, is further emphasized22 by the events immediately following the match. Here we see that Orlando's overthrow of the exclusive, heroic ego23 embodied by Charles also overthrows what there is of his own heroic ego and that of Rosalind, and makes love victorious: Orlando's conduct has evoked Rosalind's love,and her ensuing gift to him (the chain from her neck) elicits his love. The thematic equivalence of their love with the defeat of the heroic ego, or exclusive self, is indicated by the fact that their love is referred to in terms of Charles's (the heroic ego's) defeat. "My better parts / Are all thrown down" Orlando says after receiving Rosalind's gift. Rosalind responds, "Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown I More than your enemies" (I.ii.245-46, 250-51; my emphasis), and a few lines later Orlando exclaims to himself: "0 poor Orlando, thou art overthrown! I Or Charles or something weaker masters thee" (I.ii.255-56, my emphasis). Thus the literal battle constitutes a conflict between the exclusive and inclusive notions of identity, and serves as a figure for what happens within the souls of Orlando and Rosalind, and, as we shall see, the rest of the characters as well. II The two perspectives on identity which Shakespeare contrasts in the opening scenes may be seen to correspond, as we noted earlier, to 22The symbolic significance of the event is also emphasized by parallels with Hercules' fight with Anteus. Shakespeare deliberately evokes a parallel between Orlando and Hercules, it seems, by having Rosalind say to Orlando, "Now Hercules be thy speed, young man!" (I.ii.205). In Lodge the parallel is between Charles and Hercules. Knowles notes several additional allusions to the Hercules myth and observes that "Renaissance mythographers . . . moralized the wrestling match [between Hercules and Anteus] as the victory of the rational soul over earthly or sensual appetite" (p. 4)-of the true self over the perverted self. In Shakespeare's treatment of the match, the opposition of true self and perverted self is expressed not in terms of rationality versus appetite, but rather as inclusiveness and love versus exclusiveness and envy. 23The term "heroic ego," as I am using it here, is taken from James Hillman, Re- Visioning Psychology (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), who sees the true self as a multiplicity of personalities rather than a monistic "heroic ego," as he terms it. This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 13:10:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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Contrary Notions of Identity in As You like It - Yavanika

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