The Character of Rosalind in Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,5 (B), University of Potsdam, language: English, abstract: "As You Like It" is the only play of Shakespeare that I have actually seen on stage in a little theatre in Saxony. I was quite fascinated by this modern staging and therefore I decided that this play would be it for me. I really fell for Rosalind when I watched the play and so I will dedicate my research paper to her. To my mind, Rosalind is a very complex character and she is represented very humanlike, with deep insights into her soul, feelings and thoughts. She is a very sympathetic heroine which makes it easy to feel for and also with her. In the following chapter I will try to analyse her in three different ways. First I will have a closer look at the other characters trying to find out how they characterise Rosalind in their speeches and what they think of her. It will be interesting to see, in what way their opinions differ from each other or of course in what way they are similar. The second part will deal with Rosalind herself. As she is the main character, she does have to say quite a lot of things, be that wise, comical or emotional speeches. I will try to pick the most important ones and see what they reveal about Rosalind's inner feelings and her character of course. The third and last part is about Rosalind's non-verbal behaviour. I will try to find out something about her attitude towards other people and of course what all her actions tell us about herself. I will also try to find out some forboding things and the reasons for her doing. In my conclusion I will combine all my findings and sum them up so that there will be a (hopefully) complete picture of Rosalind's character at the end.