As You Like It : Study in Ecocriticism
Keywords:
Ecocriticism, Nature, Human NatureAbstract
As You Like It is one of the finest plays of Shakespearean where the dramatic genius of the ‘Bard of Avon’ works wonders. The critics like Charlton, Hazlitt, Ruskin have dwelt upon the romantic elements of this comedy such as love, music, beauty, pastoralism, feminine sensibility etc. If we probe deeply into the dramatic texture of this play, it opens out vistas of deep concerns for environmentalism. The play in general and its major parts (Acts I, II, II, IV & V) in the ‘Forest of Arden’ present an integral, an all-inclusive living of natural and cultural, emotional and intellectual, aristocratic and pastoral elements. In other words, through judicious execution of the metaphor and other poetic devices or tropes Shakespeare could be able to bring about a happy reconciliation of opposite elements of human life powerfully pleading for harmony between ecology and literature. This paper is a humble attempt to evaluate ‘As You Like It’ as a text which offers rich feast to build up metaphorically a valid argument for maintaining ecological balance and human goodness.
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