『뜻대로 하세요』: 전원적 이상주의와 비판적 풍자

Abstract

This paper suggests that, in spite of dominant pastoral aspects of the play, As You like It is inclined to show lots of satirical or critical utterances about pastoral idealism of the green world as well as about civilization of the man-made society, and, moreover, the witty satire of Touchstone and bitter criticism of Jaques in particular make the play dramatically more interesting and artistic. In Act II, Duke Senior's first speech is full of pastoral idealism that denotes some ideas of the Golden Age, "a season of everlasting spring" in which men were content with foods that grew without cultivation, and in which there were no threat of punishment, nor laws, and people enjoyed a leisurely and peaceful existence maintained with good faith and untroubled by fears. A closer reading, however, shows that the Forest of Arden is not an Elysium with the season of everlasting spring but another human society affected by seasonal cycle. The people from the court to the original inhabitants of the forest cannot help suffering from the bitter cold and hunger owing to the seasonal change. Moreover, there are human cruelty like killing of an innocent deer for food and stinginess seen in Corin's master's dealing with his workers. In these aspects of the play, Touchstone's dialogue with Corin manifests, with some ambiguities, satirical or mocking criticism both on the shepherd's and the court's life. Touchstone puts the two ways of living on the scales and underestimates the shepherd's life satirically, comparing the abundant supply of food in the court with the insufficiency in the forest as well as comparing the shepherd's mean behaviour and courtesy with those of the people in the court. Jaques' criticism on the life of the Arden Forest is a much more bitter and severe satire than that of Touchstone. Jaques deplores the killing of the deer as another inhuman cruelty similar to that of the court or the man-made society. He continuously makes severe attacks against Duke Senior's pastoral idealism. However, the satirical and witty utterances or criticism of the two characters make the play much more comical and artistic with multiple interests than any other conventional pastoral plays.