An antagonist is a character who opposes the views of the protagonist and does all he can to counter their opinions or plans. Jacques is the antagonist to the love of Orlando and Rosalind and wishes to make light of or sabotage their budding romance.
Jacques is a melancholy traveler in As you Like it. The reasons for his deep rooted and psychological sadness is unclear but references show that he is opposed to the idea and institution of love. In fact he is so accustomed to his melancholy that he wears proudly like a cloak that he actually enjoys being in this condition, revealing a mental disorder of the mind.
We can suppose that Jacques may in fact have been the Orlando in his past, may have fallen head over heels in love, only to face rejection and heart break which left him bitter and cynical. This is epitomized in his conversation with the lovesick Orlando where he, upon hearing the name of Orlando’s object of desire, coldly and emphatically states without rhyme or reason or clear motif.
3.2.246 “I do not like her name”
3.2.251 “The worst fault you have is to be in love”
3.2.264 “By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found you”
Though throughout the play Jacques is an insensitive party pooper of sorts full of sarcasm and dry wit that derides others he in fact shows great sympathy and heart by weeping and lamenting over the dying deer in the garden of Arden. He moralizes about the human condition and shows himself to be ahead of his time with great sensitivity and insight in a time when killing animals was socially accepted as a sport of kings. We might infer that the deer, a female may represent the death of his previous relationship. He may cry for the fact his lady love is dead even figuratively speaking and is mourning his heart break for something that once was a fragile beauty that roamed free. In fact love is extremely fragile and can easily be lost in the blink of an eye.
Shakespeare though being revered as the writer of personifying love through his prose and sonnets in fact enjoyed mocking love, even in his greatest love story, Romeo and Juliet. Here he cleverly uses Jacques to jest and ridicule the most passionate of human emotion. This acts a contrast to the intoxicated feelings of Orlando and Rosalind and indirectly is able to highlight their intensity with his opposition that keeps their lofty praises and optimism real and grounded. The reader is then able to grasp their love story in greater depth and appreciation due to the contrast of love and bitterness. After all love is ‘bitter sweet’ and full of pain and sorrow. So the reactions of the lovelorn Orlando strangely are not very different from the bitter Jacques who opposes love.
I agree with the sentiments of Gautam, on the further proof of the insight of Jacques, in “All the worlds a stage” commentary. And yes, that Jacques though harmless in the end despite being a foil and demonstrating open hostility to Rosalind and Orlando, is indeed to be viewed as the antagonist and not just the pessimist. It is possible as Gautam states that Jacques secretly craves to be Touchstone the court jester, but I do not agree that this shows his lighter side. Clowns are often depicted even today with sad faces and tears drawn on them which belies their antics that give rise to laughter and joys to others. In fact Jacques I feel wants to be a clown so that he can mask his own deep rooted sadness to the cruel unsympathetic world in a mask or make up. In this disguise he can make light of the ‘fools’ around him all the while hiding his true feelings. Clowns are essentially lonely people who are never part of the crowd but are removed from it, an outsider that entertains from the sidelines but is never invited into the party as a guest. He does not take part in the wedding celebration, as this celebration represents an event that he was powerless to prevent, and despises the happy ending that his life never had. He decides to be a hermit and stay in the forest which reinforces his isolation.
http://gautamkapur.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/jacques-the-antagonist/
Nicely written Sabrina. Can you link to Gautam's blog for easier access? Ms. M
ReplyDeleteI found what you said about the clown idea intriguing: Touchstone may be a clown, and he may provide some comic relief, but all the things he says are quite sad in reality. He is a loner- someone who remains an outsider. When you mentioned how a clown does not take part in a wedding, and that he "despises the happy ending that his life never had", I thought about Touchstone: a clown, he eventually marries in the end; he is not longer a loner. Why do you think this is?
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you think Jaques has a "mental disorder of the mind" as you mentioned in the beginning?
Touchstone while pretending to hate the concept of love is like all of us in the end of the day, he really just wants to find love to fill the lonely void in his heart. The fact that he marries proves that he never opposed the institution of love in the first place, he just was nursing a broken heart which made him cold hearted and cynical.
ReplyDeleteI think that all humans face so much trauma at some point in our lives that we all have our demons to face. What actually defines normal ? We all have mental issues and mental problems and we all deal with it in different ways.I do not believe that Jacques is mad in the clinical sense, he is temporary mentally disturbed but this situation can be rectified by his marriage in the same way any one can work out issues through therapy.