Rosalind is the
heroine
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero ...
and
protagonist of the play ''
As You Like It'' (1600) by
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. In the play, she disguises herself as a male shepherd named Ganymede. Many actors have portrayed Rosalind, including
Sarah Wayne Callies
Sarah Wayne Callies (born June 1, 1977) is an American actress. She is known for starring as Sara Tancredi in Fox's ''Prison Break'' and as Lori Grimes in AMC's '' The Walking Dead''. She has also starred as Katie Bowman in USA Network's ''Col ...
,
Maggie Smith,
Elizabeth Bergner,
Vanessa Redgrave,
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter (born 26 May 1966) is an English actress. Known for her roles in blockbusters and independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received various awards and nominations, including a British Academy Film Award a ...
,
Helen Mirren,
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of F ...
,
Helen McCrory,
Bryce Dallas Howard,
Adrian Lester
Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey; 14 August 1968) is a British actor, director and writer. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the ...
and Arabella Dulcie.
Origins
Rosalynde is the heroine of Lodge's Euphues' Golden Legacy. In George Fletcher's quoted writings: “'Faire Rosalind' had, however, at this time, acquired a fresh poetic fame as the object of Spenser's attachment, celebrated in his Shephearde's Calendar, 1579, and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, 1595. Of all the sweet feminine names compounded from Rosa, that of Rosa-linda seems to be the most elegant, and therefore most befitting that particular character of ideal beauty which the dramatist here assigns to his imaginary princess.”
Ganymede, the name she assumes in her disguise as a forest youth, is that of 'Jove's own page' (I, iii, 127), the most beautiful of all mortals, son of
Tros
Tros or TROS may refer to:
* 18281 Tros, an asteroid
* Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory
* TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting
* Tros (mythology)
In Greek mytholo ...
and
Callirrhoe Callirrhoe (, grc, Καλλιρρόη; also Callirhoe) may refer to:
* Callirhoe (mythology), several figures in Greek mythology, including:
** Callirrhoe (Oceanid), daughter of Oceanus and Tethys
** Callirrhoe (daughter of Achelous)
* Callirrhoe ...
, chosen by
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
to be his
cup-bearer
A cup-bearer was historically an officer of high rank in royal courts, whose duty was to pour and serve the drinks at the royal table. On account of the constant fear of plots and intrigues (such as poisoning), a person must have been regarded as ...
, and to dwell among the gods as his chosen servant.
Role in the play
Rosalind is the heroine and the daughter of the exiled Duke Senior and nice to his usurping brother, Duke Frederick. Her father is banished from the kingdom, breaking her heart. She then meets
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
, one of her father's friends' sons and falls in love with him. After angering her uncle, she leaves his court for exile in the
Forest of Arden
Arden is an area located mainly in Warwickshire, England, with parts in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and is traditionally regarded as extending from the River Avon to the River Tame. It was once heavily wooded, giving rise to the name 'F ...
. Disguised as a shepherd named Ganymede, Rosalind lives with her sweet and devoted cousin,
Celia (who is disguised as Ganymede's sister, Aliena), and Duke Frederick's fool
Touchstone. Eventually, Rosalind is reunited with her father and married to her faithful lover,
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
.
Analysis
Rosalind is one of Shakespeare's most recognized heroines. Generally noted for her resilience, quick wit, and beauty, Rosalind is a vital character in ''As You Like It''. Most commonly seen next to her beloved cousin Celia, Rosalind is also a faithful friend, leader, and schemer. She stays true to her family and friends throughout the entire story, no matter how dangerous the consequences are. Rosalind dominates the stage. Her true decision-making skills can be seen in the last scene of Act V (5) where she has to present herself as Rosalind to her father and to Orlando, but at the same time change Phebe's opinion to marry Silvius. She is the main character of the play who extracts the clarity of important traits in other characters.
Gender conventions
In'' As she likes it : Shakespeare's unruly women'', Penny Gay analyses Rosalind's character in the framework of gender conventions that ascribe femininity with qualities such as “graciousness, warmth …
ndtenderness”.
However, Rosalind's demanding tone towards Orlando contradicts these
conventions. She rejects these stereotypes of
femininity
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered f ...
believing that “the wiser
he woman is the waywarder” she is.
By claiming that women who are wild are smarter than those who are not, Rosalind often refutes the perception of women as passive in their pursuit of men. In the book ''A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare'', Carol T. Neely supports this by mentioning that through her actions, Rosalind often adopts stereotypical “
masculine behavior,” such as “initiating conversations” and “arranging marriages”.
Performance history
Theatre
Vanessa Redgrave rose to fame playing Rosalind in 1960 with the
Royal Shakespeare Company. American actress
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of F ...
played the role at the
Guthrie Theatre
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...
in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, after her award-winning portrayal of
Eva Peron
Eva or EVA may refer to:
* Eva (name), a feminine given name
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment
* Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in ...
in the original
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
run of ''
Evita''. This caused much speculation because LuPone was leaving the Broadway stage and moving to "regional" work. In 2009,
Melissa Benoist
Melissa Marie Benoist ( ; born October 4, 1988) is an American actress, singer and producer. Her first major role was Marley Rose on the Fox musical comedy drama '' Glee'' (2012–2014), where she was a series regular during the fifth season. ...
portrayed Rosalind while attending
Marymount Manhattan College
Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of New York City. As of 2020, enrollment consists of 1,571 undergraduates with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. The college was founded in 1936.
Hi ...
.
Adrian Lester
Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey; 14 August 1968) is a British actor, director and writer. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the ...
won a
Time Out Award for his performance as Rosalind in
Cheek by Jowl
Cheek by Jowl is an international theatre company founded in the United Kingdom by director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod in 1981. Donnellan and Ormerod are Cheek by Jowl's artistic directors and together direct and design all of ...
's 1991 production of ''As You Like It''. A male actor in the role (as would have been the
norm in Shakespeare's time) underlines the confusion of gender roles within the play: at one point, a male actor is playing a woman who is pretending to be a man acting the part of a woman.
Helen McCrory played Rosalind in 2005 at
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham (the other is the Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the archit ...
in London under the direction of
David Lan
David Lan is a South African-born British playwright, theatre producer and director and a social anthropologist.
Career
Born in Cape Town, he trained as an actor and gained a BA at the University of Cape Town. He has lived in London since 197 ...
. In 2009,
Naomi Frederick portrayed Rosalind at
Shakespeare's Globe
Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...
.
Television
Helen Mirren played Rosalind in the
1978 BBC Television Shakespeare version of the play directed by
Basil Coleman. In ''Shakespeare: The Animated Tales''
' 1994 adaptation of ''As You Like It'',
Sylvestra Le Touzel
Sylvestra Le Touzel (born 1958) is a British television, film and stage actor. She was born and raised in Kensington, London, to a prominent family from Saint Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands. She attended school in East Acton.
Television
Begi ...
voiced Rosalind.
Film
Rosalind has been played by various notable actresses on film including
Rose Coghlan
Rosamond Marie Coghlan (March 18, 1851 – April 2, 1932) was an English actress.
Coghlan was born in Peterborough, England, to author Francis Coghlan, and Anna Marie, ''née'' Kirby. Her elder brother (or half-brother) was the actor Charle ...
in
1912,
Elizabeth Bergner in a
1936 film opposite
Laurence Olivier as Orlando, Emma Croft in 1992,
and
Bryce Dallas Howard in the
2006 production directed by
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...
. Branagh felt that the character of Rosalind talked too much in the original play and thus cut many of Rosalind's lines in his Japan-set adaptation.
Howard was nominated for a
Golden Globe for her performance as Rosalind.
Other adaptations
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter (born 26 May 1966) is an English actress. Known for her roles in blockbusters and independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received various awards and nominations, including a British Academy Film Award a ...
portrayed Rosalind in the 2000
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
version of ''As You Like It''.
References
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rosalind (''As You Like It'')
Female Shakespearean characters
Literary characters introduced in 1600
Fictional androgynes
Fictional cross-dressers
As You Like It