Rosalind: Bold and Brilliant in Breeches
By Kathryn Neves
Any Shakespeare buff can tell you, the Bard loved writing powerful women. His plays are packed with powerful heroines, from *The Merchant of Venice’*s Portia to Titus Andronicus’s Tamora. But of all Shakespeare’s female characters, none of them quite hold a candle to Rosalind. The intrepid star of As You Like It, Rosalind is maybe the most empowered woman in Shakespeare’s canon.
As You Like It is brimming with sparkling wit—thanks, in no small part, to Rosalind. She is quick with a comeback, has a knack for clever turns of phrase, and freely gives out monologues with an intelligence far above the other characters in the play. The only other person who can sometimes match her wit is Touchstone the fool—and Shakespeare fans know that his fools are usually the smartest characters on the stage. Rosalind, though, steals every scene she’s in.
It isn’t just the content of her dialogue that sets her apart. Even outside the text of the play, we can get a good idea of Rosalind’s importance, simply by counting her lines! Rosalind has a whopping 685 lines—more than any female character in Shakespeare’s entire canon. Not only that, but Rosalind has the most lines in As You Like It—giving her the honor of being the only Shakespearean woman to have the leading number of lines in her given play. In fact, she has more than double the lines of her runner-up, Orlando!
As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies—and, like the other plays in the genre, it involves a lot of cross-dressing. Rosalind (like Viola and Portia and Imogen) spends a good chunk of the play dressed as a man. In order to protect herself and her cousin, she disguises herself as a man named Ganymede—“Jove’s own page”—and, while dressed this way, gets caught up in a messy love plot with a few forest dwellers. While dressed as Ganymede, she encounters Orlando: the man she loves. She teaches Orlando how to woo her, pretending to be Rosalind—meaning, she is a woman, dressed as a man, pretending to be a woman! (And, to add to the shenanigans, Rosalind would have been played by a man in Shakespeare’s day.)
But Rosalind’s defiance of gender roles goes beyond her masculine disguise. Throughout the play, Rosalind refuses to play by the rules. Women were expected to be passive, docile, and sweet; they were usually seen as weak and helpless, and most often at the mercy of the men in their lives. Rosalind, though, takes action. She provides for and protects herself and her family. She actively pursues Orlando, rather than waiting to be wooed. And she takes charge, giving commands and arranging matches and advising those around her. Rosalind refuses to be confined by the traditional gender roles her society so strictly enforced.
Because of her reputation as one of Shakespeare’s best heroines, many of the world’s greatest actresses have lined up to play her. From Vanessa Redgrave and Helen Mirren, to Patti Lupone and Bryce Dallas Howard—to past Festival productions starring Cassandra Bissell, Melinda Parrett, and Suzanne Cryer—Rosalind is a highly coveted role. And for good reason! You’ll see for yourself just how captivating she is, this summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Directed by Beth Lopes and starring Kayland Jordan as Rosalind, it’s a production that’ll have you saying “Oh wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful!”
Get your tickets today at bard.org or by calling 800-PLAYTIX.
