Analysis Of Homoerotic Scenes In As You Like It By Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh's interpretation of scenes makes the viewer wonder why or what makes Jacques melancholy, and what it could represent in Shakespeare's mind. Jacques is perhaps one of the most interesting characters because he is always melancholy and depressed about everything without giving an explanation why. However, when Jacques meets the fool Touchstone in the forest, for once Jacques laughs and tells his "partners in banishment" how witty Touchstone's jokes are. This is a meaningful moment for Jacques because he reveals that freedom of speech drives his joy and enthusiasm towards being a fool. When Jacques says: "I must have liberty withal, as large a charter as the wind, to blow on whom I please, for so fools have," he explains that his desire to be a fool comes from the jester's license that grants a fool the privilege to say anything to anyone he wants without consequences (II.vii.47-49). Could this …show more content…
Furthermore, Branagh's decision to obscure obvious homoerotic scenes, but lighten less-obvious homoerotic scenes within the play gives his film an overall balance of contrast to Shakespeare's As You Like It. Shakespeare's plays are completely open for interpretation, and everyone perceives different ideas at a time, but for Branagh to perceive that Jacques represents Shakespeare's emotion as socially antagonistic, his film does not deserve a 6.3 rating; it deserves at least an 8.0/10 despite the flaws in characters' costumes. Perhaps the next step is to observe the social oppression towards homosexual human impulses during Shakespeare's time, and thus compare it to modern day oppression despite homosexuality being legal