The world has had a sordid love affair with gay sex for thousands of years. We’re taught that gay sex isn’t natural and that straight sex is what holds society together. Yet, at the same time, many of us have relished in gay sex, at least privately, and it is Shakespeare’s play As You Like It which presents this truth in living colour. Put further, gay sex, according to Shakespeare, is one of those guilty pleasures humanity can’t get enough of.
“Oh Rosalind, Rosalind. Where art thou Rosalind?” says not Orlando. That line is from Romeo and Juliet, a play about straight-sex love, not gay-sex love as you would find it in “As You Like It”. My sense of this theme came to men while watching the 1936 production of the play starring Elisabeth Berner as Rosalind and Sir Lawrence Olivier as Orlando. Specifically, the point came to me when Jaques (Leon Quartermaine) delivers the iconic phrase: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
It’s a very noble sentiment indeed. We’ve all paused to think about that, I’m sure. It’s come up in meme online, everywhere in the world. But, it’s wrong. It doesn’t refer to the world in general, but rather how people hide their gay-sex proclivities from each other. But this single, iconic line isn’t enough. It’s when this line better explains what Celia (Sophie Stewart) and Rosalind were up to in Act 2 that made me see the connection. You see, both women leave Duke Frederick’s castle to live in the real world and, in the process of doing this, dress up like characters in a play. Hence, I thought, by examining these two characters – their motives, identities and problems – in more detail, can we truly understand what Jaques meant by this iconic statement.
If you feel squeamish about reading this blog which clearly postulates that gay sex is pervasive in every society, not just ours, and that many people relish in it and don’t want to admit it, then stop reading. It only gets worse from this point. For the rest of us, it’s both buns on!
So, back to the sordid tale which claims to speak to gay sex and love in Elizabethan culture and around the world, in all time and each century until now. Celia is dressed as Aliena, a poor peasant girl. Rosalind is Ganymede, a man. Together they roam the forest until they’re led by a shepherd who finds them a cottage to purchase and live in. Celia and Rosalind have escaped the cold comfort of home because they had to. Celia’s Dad (Rosalind’s uncle) Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind on the grounds that her dad is a traitor and so must she be. Frederick, it seems, tolerated Rosalind because Celia’s love for her was more “dearer than the natural bond of sisters.”
So, now we see it. A bond more natural than ”natural bond of sisters”. I believe this line insinuates a gay bond between Celia and Rosalind. They’re not just best friends, they’re bed friends too. They’re having sex. That’s why it’s interesting when both take on new identities in the world as a male and female couple. This artful disguise conveys a reality too, namely how the gayness in life often hides in plain sight, in conventional relationships no less. Both Celia and Rosalind are like a gay couple, but on the stage of life, they act like a straight one. Hence, they’re relationship-in-disguise are truly men and women players on the stage of life as Jaques’ statement suggests. But the plot thickens.
When Rosalind, in her male disguise Ganymede, meets up with Orlando in the forest, she suggests the only way for Orlando to get over his love for Rosalind is for Ganymede to pretend to be Rosalind so as way to administer the cure. Essentially, Orlando must treat this man as if he were his lover. Again, we see gay sex masking as straight sex but in another way. As the audience, we see it as straight because we know Rosalind loves Orlando, but Orlando is unwittingly taking part in something that’s gay. This is Shakespeare signalling to everyone that gay sex is pervasive in society, however subtle or not it may be.
So a bit of a summary here. All the world is a stage and men and women are players in it. Celia and Rosalind literally take on disguises like actors on a stage. Their relationship implies a gayness which is masked by this disguise of straightness – both women take on the roles of a straight couple. Rosalind then plays up this disguise to create a mock gay relationship with Orlando, which he fully participates in. Hence, we see Shakespeare signaling to the Elizabethans of this time that gay sex is everywhere and everyone knows it. Now, it’s time to show that it crosses class lines too.
Another woman, Phebe (Joan White), falls in love with Ganymede rather than the straight man, Silvius who is pursuing her. Phebe is a poor peasant woman. Like Orlando, she thinks she’s engaging in a straight romantic affair, but it’s really with a woman instead. Does that make Phebe a little gay inside? Perhaps. Just as Orlando might be a little gay if he found a guy with Rosalind’s heart, so would Phebe with Rosalind’s. Hence, the pattern repeats again and when a pattern repeats again, we know the writer is getting at something. That’s how writers develop theme. But Shakespeare goes a little further than just gay sex too.
Near the end of the play, Shakespeare even tackles gender neutral people as well as the asexual. It happens when Rosalind professes to cure everyone of their relationship ills which compels each of them to profess the name of their love interest aloud. The peasant Phebe professes Ganymede. Silvius to Phebe. Orlando to Rosalind. But, Ganymede as Rosalind, profess to no woman. Here then, is a case of gender neutrality because she is both male and female as well as a person who is asexual. Again, it is hidden in plain site for the audience because ultimately we know it’s a woman there, not a man, and also, we know she attracts lovers of both genders as if appearances were more important than the essence of the person.
Read between the lines if you will and you’ll see Shakespeare makes the same point: Straight relationships often contain a gay overtone at any level of society. Being gay is as much a part of the world as being straight. Also, gay love hides in plain view under the veneer of straightness. This makes all the men and women players in the world, which is a stage for loving, fucking and living, as Shakespeare would have it. Or, as you would like it.
Is this all far-fetched? I am not a Shakespearean expert or aficionado. This isn’t even a theory, just some basic observations made on a single viewing. I’m just piecing it all together because of what Jaques said about all the world’s a stage and matched it with what was happening on Shakespeare’s stage to find a truth about humanity best told as a romantic comedy.
Well, enjoy your meal and your Shakespeare, everyone, preferably with both buns on. -M.
SOME REFERENCES:
YouTube Video: ”AS YOU LIKE IT (1936) – Full Movie – Captioned” by dcmpnad.
Online play: As You Like It. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by Jeremy Hylton.