Contextual Questions - As You Like It - A Comedy by William Shakespeare

As You Like It: A Comedy by William Shakespeare

Act I: Scene I

Contextual Questions (Question Courtesy-Xavier Pinto)

1. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the

something that nature gave me, his countenance seems to

take from me: he lets me feed me with his hinds, bars me the

place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility

with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves

me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me,

begins to mutiny against this servitude. I will no longer

endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.

(i) Who speaks these lines? Where does the scene take place? Who else is present at the scene?

Orlando, the brave and chivalrous hero of the drama and the victim of the tyranny of his elder brother, speaks these lines.

The opening scene takes place in an orchard near Oliver’s house.

Adam, an old servant of Sir Rowland, Oliver, the malicious, eldest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, Dennis, Oliver’s servant, and Charles, Duke Frederick’s wrestler, are present at the scene.

(ii) Who is ‘he’ referred to in the extract? What injustice has he done to the speaker as far his inheritance and education is concerned?

In the extract, ‘he’ refers to Oliver, the unnatural brother of Orlando who hates him (Orlando) for his outstanding qualities.

Oliver has not only deprived Orlando of a gentleman’s upbringing as he (Oliver) should have done as his father’s will dictated him but has also purposely desisted from sending him to school.

(iii) What is said about the speaker’s father? How is the younger brother of the speaker better off than him?

It is said that Orlando’s father Sir Rowland de Boys is dead and that he entrusted Oliver, his eldest son to bring up all his children including Orlando as befitting to the members of the nobility.

The younger brother of Orlando, Jaques is better off than the former in the sense that arrangements have been made by Oliver for his education whereas Orlando is languishing unattended at home.

(iv) Give the meaning of the following:

(a) mines my gentility: undermines my noble birth

(b) to mutiny against this servitude: to rebel against the slavery (Orlando’s) to Oliver

(v) Give the comparison between the treatment of the speaker and the treatment of animals.

Orlando complains that the manner in which Oliver treats him is no better than an ox being kept by its owner at a stall in the stable. Even Oliver’s horses are fed with excellent fodder besides being trained by expert riders whereas Orlando is neither given good food nor provided with education or any kind of training befitting a noble man’s son.

(vi.) Summarise the grievances of the speaker as given in the extract.

Orlando is grieved at not having been given a gentleman’s upbringing and the rightful place of a sibling by his elder brother Oliver. He is also sorrowful that this is robbing him of his natural abilities. His father’s spirit within him has begun to rebel against the slavery he is being subjected to, although he does not know how to remedy the situation.

(vii) What does the extract show about the character of Orlando?

Orlando emerges as an unschooled yet well behaved, ill-bred yet learned young man in the extract. The extract also clearly shows him as an aggressive young man who will not be cowed down by his wretched condition.

N.B. You can also find this free As You Like It contextual answers at

http://groups.google.co.in/group/write-better-speak-better?hl=en-GB