Ducdame ducdame ducdame

As You Like it
vs.
Shakespeare's comedies


As is common in Shakespeare's writing, The audience tends to know more than the characters. In Romeo and Juliet we knew that she wasn't really dead, in Much ado about Nothing, we also knew she wasnt dead. In As you Like it we knew Ganymede was a woman and in Hamlet we knew that it was Pulonius behind the curtain.
I forget what it's called when the audience has knowledge that the characters don't.. I know its some kind of irony but the only word I can think of for it is cruel.

Maybe it's the time period, but there is also a lot of weird family stuff. Complicated trees I mean. Like Rosalind is the other girl's cousin but Rosalind's uncle hates her so they get banished but rosalind falls in love with the guy her uncle hates and they get banished I mean its just messed.. UP.

Shakespeare also has a habit of bringing totally random characters into the mix just because he can. I still the a Midsummer Nights dream would have been so much better if the Faerie King wasn't in it. And there's always a character who's totally insane. Jaques the cynic, Mercutio, the donkey-man in Midsummer Nights, Hamlet... The list goes on.