Saturday, October 17, 2015

Which two characters express sorrow about the killing of deer in the Forest of Arden?

Jacques expresses sorrow over the death of a deer he once witnessed. He claims that the poor wounded creature shed tears just before it passed away. Jacques then goes on to say that hunters are "usurpers" and "tyrants." What he means by this is that, by hunting deer, humans are taking over the natural habitat of other creatures.
Yet at the same time, one must recognize that, in Shakespeare's day, all the forests and the animals that lived in them belonged to the reigning monarch. Hunting deer was, therefore, strictly forbidden—a capital crime, no less—but as many poor peasants had no alternative food supply, they risked their lives to prevent themselves from starving to death. So, hunting deer could be seen as a symbol of defiance of royal authority, which is appropriate here because the Forest of Arden is a place of exile for those banished from court.
One of those exiles is Duke Senior, whose hunting in the forest is most definitely the behavior one would expect of an outlaw. Yet even this Robin Hood figure expresses sorrow at the killing of deer, these "poor dappled fools," as they are the "native burghers" of the forest—they are its original habitants.

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