Relationships in Shakespeares As You Like It Essay -- Shakespeare As

Relationships in As You Like It Pronounce that sentence on me, my liege. I cannot continue out of her company(Shakespeare quoted in Norton Anthology 1611). Who made these remarks about the dear Rosalind, was it Celia, the nonpareil whom she calls coz, or is Orlando the man that she is in love with? The question then becomes if Celia give tongue to these words what was her meaning. Is it that Celia is attracted to Rosalind as more than a friend or is this exactly an subject of the female friendships of the duration? This is a look at the contrastive dynamics of relationships during the rebirth. Those relationships of female friends, male bonding and homoeroticism in As You Like It. During the Renaissance the friendship amongst females was very important. At this time in history there came a time when a fair wind was no longer considered attractive to a man. When she reaches this point the friendship that she forms between herself and another female takes the place of a marriage. The female friendship seems to protrude in a specifically social form of female rightness which revises the characteristic masculinity of friendship rhetoric in the period (Shannon 658). An example of the friendship that exists between Celia and Rosalind in As You Like It can be found in Act 3 scene 4 lines 1-5 Rosalind never talk to me. I will exclaim. Celia Do, I prithee, but yet stimulate the grace to consider that tears do not become a man Rosalind But have I not cause to weep? Celia As good cause as one would desire whence weep (Shakespeare quoted in the Norton Anthology 1634) In this conversation Celia takes on the masculine determination even though it is Rosalind that is dressed as a man. Celia is very besotted at a point... ...ts are still present. It is a difficult seat to state if a relationship is truly erotic or if it is besides the views that our modern society is placing on it. A society in which sex sells and it doesnt matter who the relationsh ip is between. Works Cited Sedgwick, Eve. Between Men English writings and Male Homosocial Desire. New York. Columbia Univ. Press1985 Shannon, Laurie. Emilias Argument Friendship and Human Title in The two Noble Kinsmen. ELH 64.3 (1997) 657-682 Strout, Nathanial. As You Like It, Rosalynde, and Mutuality. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 41.2 (2001) 277-295 Traub, Valerie. The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England. GLQ A Journal of Lesbian and jolly Studies 7.2 (2001) 245-263 Walen, Denise. Constructions of Female Homoerotics in Early Modern Drama. Theatre Journal 54.3 (2002) 411-430