Finish the play if you can for Thursday, but we'll really only have time to discuss Acts 3 & 4 as usual. Here are some ideas to consider as you read:
* In a play largely written in prose, verse is no longer 'natural,' but often strange when it appears in the play. How does the play often use verse for satirical purposes--that is, to mock the person who uses it?
* How do these acts discuss the conventions of love and how lovers such as Oliver, Silvius, etc. should behave? What seems artificial and ultimately humorous about these conventions? How do we know that Shakespeare is laughing at them? (if interest, read Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, which seems to inform many of the speeches in this play--notably Rosalind's to Phoebe in Act 3, scene 5).
* How do Touchstone and Audrey satirize the behavior of other lovers, such as Orlando & Rosalind, and Silvius and Phoebe? What makes his "foolish" approach to love so unconventional--and comic?
* How does Rosalind (as Ganymede) instruct Orlando to woo her? How is this similar to how Sylvia instructs Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona? What makes this version of the scene a bit more racy--and humorous?
* Why is Act 3, Scene 5 entirely in verse? What makes Rosalind switch when talking to Phoebe and Silvius? What effect does this have on the scene and the audience?
* In previous plays, the headstrong, witty woman always has a foil--a man who can ultimately overpower her (Proteus for Sylvia and Julia, Oberon for Titania, Demetrius for Helena, etc.). Why doesn't Rosalind have a similar male foil? Why do you think Shakespeare allows her to basically run wild in the forest with no one to oppose her?
* How does Jacques develop as a fool in these acts--and what happens when he meets up with Touchstone?
* Why is Oliver out to destroy his brother, Orlando? What makes him a villain in this play? And how seriously are we supposed to take him?
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