William Shakespeare's plays stand out centuries after their writing because of their ability to fit into various literary categories. On reading any of Shakespeare's plays, a reader is often tempted to place it in a certain genre. But, over time, this description is bound to change. A play may qualify as romance tragedy today but later change to a comic. The Tempest which is Shakespeare's last play has been described as a tragicomedy, comedy, or a romance by various editors throughout centuries (Nostbakken 15).
Many critics argue that Shakespeare borrowed the plot of his plays. But Wells (49) has a different view. In William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction, Wells writes that the layout and structuring of the plays, the plotting in dramatic form, the varying perspectives from which the stories are told, the scene's dispositions, the plots' juxtaposition with subplots, the inclusion of songs, the narration of the stories with use of choric figures, and the annexation of preambles, monologs, and plays within plays, are all Shakespeare's own invention. This makes Shakespeare's not only unique in the literary world but also difficult to categorize.
This essay explicates on two of Shakespeare's plays As You Like It and The Winter's Tale. Besides making comparisons of the two plays, the essay shall delve into the genres of the plays and how they work within or outside the features of the specific genre. Furthermore, the essay underscores on the generic features to draw comparisons and differences on the plays' themes and formalistic aspects.
Discussion
As You Like It
Shakespeare's literary works are more often than not depicted on the basis of conflicting aspects. For example the fair and the foul in Macbeth. As You Like It is no different. According to Bloom (6), As You Like It is an antithesis between the natural and the artificial. The natural in this sense refers to that which is free and whole while the artificial makes references to that which is constrained and calculated.
Shakespeare demonstrates the antithesis in three areas of the play. One, the social arena: the civilized society of the great country estate versus the simple life of the forested escarpment. Two, the family arena: the great strife between one brother and another and of the parent against a child. Three, the love arena: courtship based on genuine love (Orlando and Rosalind) in contrast to courtships based on formal setups (Silvius and Phebe).
Written in 1600, two lovers Rosalind and Orlando, forced into exile in the Forest of Arden, succeed to get entangled in a game of love, lust, and mistaken identity. At the end of reading the play, the reader gets to appreciate how bewildering yet pleasurable life can be. Shakespeare presents various accounts in the play that makes readers grasp on the element of antithesis.
Exile into the forest
Exiled from the Court by his brother Duke Fredrick, Duke Senior takes refuge in the Forest of Arden along with other faithful lords (Shakespeare 4). His daughter Rosalind remains at the court with her cousin and Fredrick's daughter Celia.
Siblings Rivalry
Orlando de boys remain in poverty since his father's death (Sir Rowland de Boys) due to his brother Oliver. This prompts Orlando to go to court and fight for his share of the father's fortune. It is in Fredrick's court that Orlando first meets Rosalind and they instantly fall in love.
Banishment
Seeing Rosalind as a threat to his reign, the Duke banishes Rosalind to the Forest of Arden where she proceeds to seek Duke Ferdinand. Orlando, on the other hand, flees upon hearing of his brother's plot to kill him. As fate has it, Orlando and Rosalind meet again the Forest of Arden and Orlando begins to woo her.
Finding love in the Forest of Arden
The Forest of Arden becomes a love arena. The Shepherd Silvius falls in love with Phoebe. Touchstone pursues Audrey, Oliver falls in love with Aliena while he is in the forest to hunt for his brother Orlando. And Orlando finally falls in love with Rosalind. While half of the play is about mocking romance, Shakespeare succeeds to conjoin every character into one family that lives happily ever after.
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale (1609-1611) is an exposition of loss and redemption; and of death and transformation (Dowd, Michelle, and Natasha 131). A string of unfounded jealousy sets Leontes, the King of Sicily, in a path of destruction. Leontes is obsessed with the thought that his wife Hermione has an affair with his friend Polixenes, the king of Bohemia. Leontes plots to poison Polixenes but the king is made aware by Camillo, Leontes' servant. Together, they flee leaving Hermione and Leontes to a sequence of marital battle.
The parade of bad decisions continues as Leontes imprisons Hermione and banishes his newborn child Mamillius to exile. It is only after the death of Mamillius in prison and the collapsing of his wife Hermione, that Leontes comes to reality. Sixteen years later, during which Leontes rues his bad choices, and he reappears and they become reunited.
Play Analysis: comparisons and differences
Problem Plays
It is often difficult to generalize Shakespeare's work and artistry (Wells 50). Every play mark as a move forward in both the artistic and spiritual development. More importantly, Shakespeare adopted varying literary techniques to achieve his artistic ends. It is no surprise, therefore, that many editors, commentaries, and readers across centuries have failed to reach a consensus as to what genre befits the plays As You Like It and The Winter's Tale.
Both The Winter's Tale and As You Like It are two part-structure plays but each is joined together at the end with the resolution of conflicts. In The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare depicts a tragedy in Wintery Sicily, where Leontes plunges into a destruction spree, plotting to poison his friend and imprisoning his wife Hermione (Pitcher 66). The play's second half qualifies as a comedy dramatizing the happy ending for the characters and the restoration of order in the kingdom.
As You Like It
also depicts the two part-structure. In the first half, Shakespeare describes the civilized society of the great country estate in the reign of Duke Fredrick. This half qualifies as both a tragedy characterized by the banishments of Duke Senior, Rosalind, and Orlando. The second half is a tragicomedy and romance where Shakespeare succeeds to conjoin most characters with love.
The mixed genre evident in the two plays elicits the term "problem plays." The term describes an anthology of plays that are difficult to characterize (Marsh 237). More specifically, a problem play as the name suggests is a literary genre constructed upon a particular problem of sociological nature. The problem may be social evils like prostitution, infidelity, marital, or poverty. A problem play thrives on the element of propaganda. For instance, Shakespeare wrote plays that were troubling to audiences as they were overly propagandists. Furthermore, a problem play is not only diagnostic-highlighting the social evil-but also therapeutic. The writer, therefore, spells describes the ills as well as the resolution of these ills.
Themes
As you like it and The Winter's Tale shares the major themes of love and of comparisons between two aspects surrounding the characters' lives. In As you like it Orlando and Rosalind become entangled in a game of love commencing from the time the two characters in court to the reunion in Forest of Arden. While in The Winter's Tale the theme of love manifests between Camillo and Polixenes where Camillo informs Polixenes of Leontes' plot to poison him. Also, love reunites Leontes with his wife Hermione at the end of the play.
Both plays also make comparisons about the life around the characters. In As you like it,
Shakespeare compares the civilized society of the great country estate versus the simple life of the forested escarpment. While in The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare compares life in Wintery Sicily at the beginning of the play and Bohemia at the end of the play. These comparisons emphasize the two-half structure that Shakespeare employs to write the plays.
Conflict
Problems plays are complicated and the key to understanding these complicated works is to discover their most projecting literary techniques (Clark 5). Conflict is the most prominent technique that Shakespeare employs in writing the above plays. Songs, poems, and short stories can achieve their purpose without conflict, but plays cannot. Conflict is, therefore, the bread and butter of drama devoid of which no drama exists (Pritner, Cal, and Scott 25).
The Winter's Tale
The play employs conflict between the protagonist King Leontes, and the antagonist-jealousy. At the beginning of the play, King Leontes leads a happy life with a beautiful wife Hermione and a lifelong friend King Polixenes. Over time, King Leontes single-handedly destroys kingdom thanks to jealousy and suspicion. Leontes plots to poison his friend imprisons his wife and disowns the infant child. Leontes actions reach a climax with the death of Prince Mamillius. At the end of the third Act, Leontes sets back to reality and realizes the severity of his actions. The outcome of the conflict is that of reconciliation characterized by the forgiveness of Leontes by all that he inflicted agony. He also reunites with Hermione.
As You Like It
There is a resounding conflict between lives in the civilized court versus the simplicity of the Forest of Arden. Several characters are exiled to the Forest from which they find asylum. Duke Senior retreats to the forest after being banished by his brother. Rosalind joins the Duke after Duke exiles her for being a threat to the Duke's reign. Orlando flees to the Forest after learning of his brother's plot to kill him. The outcome of the conflict is that these characters find love and that resolves the conflict between court life and the Forest of Arden.
Structure
The two plays take a divergence in terms of structure. The Winter's Tale is a sharp contrast to As You Like It on the basis of conformity to "classical unities" which are time, place, and action. Normal plays follow a specific structure: usually takes a day, within a specific location, and contains one plot and no sub-plots (Malloy 24). Shakespeare ignores the conventional style of writing a play. His plays are episodic. No scene in the play is very long, the action skips from one place to another, and most importantly, there are time gap usually years (Bly 34). In The Winter's Tale Shakespeare has a sixteen years gap between the first and second halves. There is also a shift in geographical location from Sicily in the first three Acts and in Bohemia in the last Acts.
Conclusion
The plays As You Like It and The Winter's Tale have stood the test of time because of their unique style of writing. Many have failed to place the plays in a specific genre mainly because they are problems plays with complicated structures and diverse literary techniques. Shakespeare own inventions keep the readers anticipating and eager thanks to their unpredictability. More importantly, Shakespeare has succeeded to turn stories of tragedy and of social evils and transforming them into fairy tales that reflect the more optimistic nature of humanity.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold, Ed. As You Like It-William Shakespeare. Infobase Publishing, 2009.
Bly, William. Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Barron's Educational Series, 1984.
Clark, Ira. Rhetorical Readings, Dark Comedies, and Shakespeare's Problem Plays. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. Print.
Dowd, Michelle M, and Natasha Korda. Working Subjects in Early Modern English Drama. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011. Print.
Marsh, Nicholas. Shakespeare. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Internet resource.
Nostbakken, Faith. Understanding the Tempest: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.
Pitcher, J. The Winter's Tale. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2001. Print.
Pritner, Cal, and Scott E. Walters. Introduction to play analysis. Waveland Press, 2017.
Shakespeare, William. As you like it. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Shakespeare, William. The winter's tale. Vol. 11. JB Lippincott, 1898.
Wells, Stanley. William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Print.
