As You Like It: Shakespearean Philosophy of Harmony in the Forest of Arden

Abstract

Young Cho LeeThe purpose of this paper is to explore Shakespeare's philosophy of harmony that is epitomized by the Forest of Arden in As You Like It. This study asks whether the Forest of Arden is a place for escapism or a place for creativity. While many studies so far have analyzed the Forest of Arden in terms of a shelter or escapism, Northrope Frye suggests a different perspective in which the Forest of Arden is a creative place where a metamorphosis takes place. Based on the N. Frye's perspective, I first examine factors that cause conflicts to characters in their court life. Second, I investigate how such factors are resolved and metamorphosed at the Forest of Arden. Finally, I explore how characters that have undergone a metamorphosis construct a new system of order while maintaining harmony and reconciliation. In As You Like It, Shakespeare employs such paradoxes as losing leads to gaining, denial to affirmation, flight to return, and conflict to reconciliation. From this perspective, the Forest of Arden turns to a place of harmony where conflicts are resolved, paradoxes disappeared, established values are dismantled, a new system of order is formed. At this place, Shakespeare's philosophy of harmony makes its appearance.