Role Paper “As You Like It” was a delightful yet very familiar comedy about love. My role in the project was to be the connector. This role was easy for me because I was able to connect a lot of what happened in “As You Like It” to things that we have read in class. One of the first things that came to mind as I read was the “Twelfth Night.” I noticed right off the bat that “As You Like It” had many similarities regarding love and gender role in “Twelfth Night.” Another connection I found was in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” in regards to leaving court and out into the wilderness. I also found connections that many people face in every day like rejection which is seen at first in Silvius and Phoebe. First off I noticed a lot of similarities with “Twelfth Night.” One of similarities was a female character disguising and dressing herself as a man. Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede; just like Viola disguised herself as Cesario. Both take on the role of a man to prevent showing their true social status. When both Rosalind and Viola dress as men, this causes different comical situations throughout the play to arise. Other similarities include how characters seem to fall in love so quickly. Many of these characters have only known each other for short periods of time yet they have fallen head over heels for each other. In “As You Like It” many character either flee or are banished from court. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” we also come across Gawain having to leave court as well. In each of these pieces if literature, we see that leaving court is a big deal. They don’t have the comforts or safety of living within the court walls. By leaving the court these characters can develop and situations can arise.
Rejection of love is another similarity. Silvius loves Phoebe but at first Phoebe rejects and detests his love just like Olivia rejects Malvolio’s love. Rejections if something that everyone can relate to either because we have felt it or are scared to feel it. The different between these two though is that even though Silvius and Malvolio are rejected, Silvius in the end gets to marry his love and Malvolio doesn’t.