Jaques Character in as You Like It

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Jacques’s function in ‘As You Like It’ is as the traditional malcontent character of both pastoral romance, and Shakespeare’s Elizabethan times as an archetype well known to Elizabethan audiences. During Shakespeare’s Elizabethan times, the Elizabethans were fascinated by what we call today complexes. They used the theory of the four humours to explain people’s behaviour, moods and personality. They believed that one’s personality was determined by such humours. These were blood producing bravery, phlegm producing calmness, yellow bile producing anger and black bile producing melancholy. The belief was that if all the humours were in balance, the outcome was a healthy and temperate person. However, if one humour dominated, the outcome would be someone with an unbalanced personality. This belief would have led many Elizabethans to believe that Jaques had an excess of black bile because of his extreme melancholy. Jaques is the opposite of everything that Rosalind stands for, wallowing in an overtly cynical nature as Jaques’s character is remarkable for his melancholy and introspection. Although we cannot deny that he is the perfect embodiment of the quintessential melancholy man who took centre stage in the time of Shakespeare- extract enjoyment from, we see that he adds a fitting contrast to the theme of pastoral romance the corrections of which Shakespeare was greatly satirising through this character. In Jaques we find, Shakespeare representing the typical courtier, distinguished from those of the utopian forest. Jaques’s major function is to act as a commentator on society as well as introducing a comedic aspect to the play. A key theme within the play is country versus court and Jaques successfully identifies this theme through his remarks on the Lords and Duke Senior. In Act II, Scene I we hear of Jaques ‘weeping and commenting upon the sobbing deer’

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