As You Like It: Act I Scene III: Solved Contextual Question

As You Like It: Act I Scene III

Rosalind: The duke my father loved his father dearly.

Celia: Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly?

By this kind of chase, I should hate him, for my father hated

his father dearly; yet I hate not Orlando.

Rosalind: N, faith, hate him not, for my sake.

Celia: Why should I not? Doth he not deserve well?

i) What inconvenience has Orlando suffered on account of being the son of Sir

Rowland?

            Orlando has to suffer the malice of his elder brother Oliver since his father’s death and secondly, this fact has made Duke Frederick feel antagonistic to the young man as he is the son of his enemy.

ii) What argument does Celia give to the reasoning given by Rosalind for having fallen in love with Orlando?

            Celia asserts that if Rosalind’s reasoning that she loves Orlando because her father the Duke senior loved his father were true, she (Celia) should likewise hate Orlando since her father hated Sir Rowland de Boys. (the deceased father of Orlando)

iii) How can you conclude from the extract that Rosalind is in deep love with Orlando?

            Rosalind’s reasoning that she had to fall in love with Orlando anyway because her father loved his (Orlando’s) father clearly shows her deep love for Orlando.

iv) What were Celia and Rosalind discussing about love just before the extract?

            

On Celia’s asking Rosalind if Cupid (the god of love) had mercy upon her and as to why she was keeping silent, Rosalind answered that she had not a single word to hurl even at a dog. Protesting, Celia says that her cousin’s words were too valuable to be wasted like that. Having engaged in such word-play for a while, Celia urged Rosalind to fight against the feeling of love which had taken possession of her. When Rosalind expressed her inability to do so, Celia wanted to know if it was really possible for her to develop such a strong liking for Orlando so abruptly.

v) Who interrupts the conversation of Rosalind and Celia? In what mood is that person? Why has that person come there?

           The Duke Frederick does so.

            He is in an angry mood since his discovery of Rosalind’s preferences for Orlando, the son of his enemy Sir Rowland de Boys.

            He has come with the intention of announcing Rosalind’s banishment from his court.

© SOMNATH MITRA 2010        

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