As You Like It Gender Quotes Page 3

Page (3 of 4) Quotes: 1 2 3 4

How we cite the quotes:
(Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to The Norton Shakespeare, second edition, published in 2008.

Quote #7

ROSALIND
Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak. (3.2.25)

Ugh. Do things ever change? More fairly, is this statement a reasonable characterization of women?

Quote #8

CELIA
You have simply misus'd our sex in your love-prate. We must
have your doublet and hose pluck'd over your head, and show the
world what the bird hath done to her own nest. (4.1.3)

Celia calls Rosalind out on how abusive she has been towards her own gender. Rosalind (as Ganymede) seems comfortable making these statements that play up stereotypes of women. Is this because she knows all these stereotypes are untrue, or because she really believes that women are as silly as Ganymede has made them out to be? You decide.

Quote #9

OLIVER
Be of good cheer, youth. You a man!
You lack a man's heart.
ROSALIND
I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would think
this was well counterfeited. I pray you tell your brother how
well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho!
OLIVER
This was not counterfeit; there is too great testimony in
your complexion that it was a passion of earnest.
ROSALIND
Counterfeit, I assure you.
OLIVER
Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man.
ROSALIND
So I do; but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by
right. (4.3.12)

When Rosalind faints at the sight of Orlando's blood on a handkerchief, she seems to fit the role of the stereotypical woman. This prompts Oliver to order "Ganymede" to buck up and act like a man.

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