The audience's first impression of the forest of Arden is from Charles, the undefeated wrestler whom Orlando is about to defeat. Charles informs Oliver, in regard t

One's sense of the forest of Arden is a place that changes from moment to moment and from character to character... Arden has objective reality, but its reality is not simply objective... [Shakespeare] does not reduce reality to one truth or to the other (Berry 141).

The reliance on or lack of reliance on time is another way one can view a character's life in nature. For some, like Celia, who "willingly could waste my time in [the forest of Arden]" (35), Jacques, who mocks the clock as an instrument that lets one know that "from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, and then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot" (39), and Duke Senior all appear to be enjoying endless afternoons. Others, such as Rosalind, who instructs Orlando on punctuality and its importance in courtly love, bluntly exclaims that "Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let Time try" (79). At first Orlando is willing to "lose and neglect the creeping hours of time" (42) but is quickly instructed on the proper use of time by Rosalind and uses it when saving Oliver from the lioness. At that moment "he determines for him as well as for his brother the course of future events" (Peterson 29), internalizing courtly time in Orlando and the opposite for Oliver. Although the awareness of time is a direct relation to city life, this instance allows Oliver to let go of time and join the endless afternoon in the country and allows Oliver to realize the importance of time, specifically in regard to love.

eved that solitary man enjoyed original happiness because he was free from the sins of society, such as jealousy and envy, and could peacefully co-exist with nature. Thus from being an attendant to Duke Senior in Court to being immersed in nature with courtly men, Jacques finally leaves to be free from vice of his main antagonist-man.

Touchstone and his relationships with people in the forest of Arden reveals several insights into country life. Touchstone is the main source of comedy in the play and one major vehicle for his comedy is to play on the various perspectives of others in regard to country life. "Instead of representing or expressing a forthright point of view, [Touchstone] is intended to expose and mock, in straightforward statements or by means of irony, the attitudes of other people" (Phialas 227). His role is similar to Jacques in that they both rely on others to express themselves and yet they hold opposite attitudes towards the court versus country debate. Touchstone is a courtly character and expresses this upon his entrance to the forest of Arden that "when I was at home, I was in a better place, but travelers must be content" (Shakespeare 32). Touchstone's time with Corin begins his play on perspectives, partly in the fact that Corin is a born and raised shepherd and enjoys a simple life in nature. Touchstone’s speech to Corin that begins "truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught…" (47) reveals that his own perspective is malleable and will change with regard to his company. Touchstone is not 'experienced' as Jacques is in a philosophical sense; rather experienced in human relations upon which he draws his comedy. Touchstone condemns Corin for he has never been in the court, and Corin responds in the simplistic statement that "those that are good manners at court are as ridiculous in the country as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court" (48). In this respect the simple shepherd has detected Touchstone's courtly wit and, although not openly, Touchstone is willing to give country life a chance. He eventually departs with Corin "not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage" (52). However Touchstone's "comments on the conflict between pastoral life and life at court cannot be taken in a strict biographical and psychological consistent sense" and he "refuses to idealize life in Arden or the ways of pastoral wooing" (Phialas 2

Some topics in this essay:
Duke Senior, Touchstone's Corin, Rosalind Celia, Senior Court, , Arden Orlando, William Touchstone, Orlando McFarland, Jacques Lord, Orlando Christ-like, forest arden, duke senior, country life, rosalind celia, courtly life, reveals insights, pastoral life, nature characters, entrance forest arden, enjoyment pastoral life, easy ambivalence, court versus country, characters themselves, versus country debate, return courtly life,