Ever hear someone call you “sanguine” to compliment your bubbly personality? Maybe people worry that you become a bit too “melancholic?”
Jaques, one of Duke Senior’s lords In Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” spends his time as a merry-sad follower. He exudes a presence of depression and resignation while chilling in solitude. When characters talk to him, they quickly realize he’s a pretty dismal guy with little ambition in life. Continue reading
Shakespeare’s As You Like It is a comedy with much cause for melancholy. Orlando rightly resents the problems he incurs because of primogeniture. Despite being born into nobility, Orlando is left penniless and uneducated as he is not the eldest son of his father, Sir Rowland de Boys. Duke Senior, who shows no signs of distress at his situation throughout the play, has been banished by his younger brother who usurped Senior’s birthright to the family wealth, land, and power. Rosalind, as Duke Senior’s daughter, is also banished from her home and left hapless. These characters all have due reason to lament their fortunes, however, none are quite so melancholy as Jacques. Continue reading