"I had rather hear you chide than this man woo." (III.v.52)
Well, this is awkward. The dramatic irony is practically dripping from the pages of this adorable little book because Phebe is in love with a man who's actually a woman. And to add to the insanity: that man who is actually a woman is in love with Orlando who loves her back but doesn't know it is her so he is pretending to be in love with a man that is actually the woman he loves. (intake of breath) It's all very unfortunate for Phebe because she's in love with a woman. I mean, talk about embarrassing. The audience knows of Rosalind's disguise, as does Celia (who is also in disguise), but the rest of the characters are completely ignorant. So I have to ask: are they just used to really feminine guys in this forest? Because I doubt a duke's daughter looks masculine enough to be a strapping young man. But oh well. Shakespeare was a bit worn out with comedies when he wrote this anyway. This whole situation just reminds me of the scene is She's the Man (I'm sure no one else has alluded to this movie in their blogs yet, Mr. Costello...sarcasm...so you're in for a treat) when Olivia Lennings proclaims to Viola that she is just going to walk up to Sebastian (Viola's brother who she has been impersonating for 1 1/2 weeks) and kiss him. Here's a clip in case you don't get the idea:
As audience members, we're pretty lucky to know that Ganymede is actually Rosalind because I would be extremely confused if I didn't know. Or maybe I would just feel really awkward watching Orlando pretend to love a man.
No comments:
Post a Comment