Character Study
In 'As You Like It' I'm playing the character Audrey in Act 3 Scene 3. She is a rural character living in a farmhouse in the Forest of Arden. She is a servant. I'm going to create a vast and imaginative character through the use of a Character Study and use it to explore my character further, thinking about ways I can develop her into a stage (or this our case, screen) ready character.
Introduction
Audrey is a character living in the Forest of Arden (which in our contemporary version we've decided to turn into a pub) as I've previously said, since she hasn't been married or in a relationship and has a young boy chasing after her love - William (which isn't in our scene) - I've decided that she will still be quite young at 21. She is old enough to know herself but still hasn't got the wise thought of an older woman as of yet. Audrey was born in a common area of Portsmouth and hasn't known any different, secretly I believe she is waiting for a posh lad to whisk her away to richness, I love to play her this way because it gives her way more depth than how she's portrayed to the audience by other characters. To the audience, she seems like this dumb witted, stupid farm girl who has no future, but I believe Audrey is so much more than that. This is the basis of what I want to play her as, I have many more ideas but this is what I want to give her as an introduction. Audrey, despite having these dreams, works as a barmaid in the Forest of Arden pub, she is nothing but a working class girl and has been her whole life. It's a boring but common reality, I don't think she really minds that much, as she's always been this way, however I believe she would love to move away and experience city life with a posh man in a suit. Audrey is usually portrayed as an ugly and ignorant shepherd girl (on stage) but in our contemporary adapted version I want her to be just a little dumb but chatty and a fun loving girl. In the stage version, Touchstone introduces her to the Duke as 'a poor virgin, an ill-favoured thing but my own'. She is attracted by the courtly manners and wit of Touchstone and Touchstone discovers in her in the farmhouse when escaping from the court with Rosalind and Celia. Touchstone eventually falls in love with Audrey, but in more of a lustful way. Their love is a parody of the romantic love of the hero and the heroine of the play, but this is a point I'll develop on further. If it was contemporary, Touchstone would probably introduce her to his boss in some high tech company, and expecting her to get a job there, this could be a fun story to play out however we are only focusing on Act 3 Scene 3.
Context of the Character
One of Audrey's main functions as a character with context in the play is the
satire of pastoral life, her character represents that nature isn't all pure and isn't this clean, beautiful life that Elizabethan City people believed it to be. Audrey is known as a "foul slut", someone who is impure and has had sex with a lot of men at her young age. Touchstone makes this clear to the audience, as soon as he discovers her, that Audrey is nothing to admire or aspire to be since it is all fake. Shakespeare loves to take the mick out of this glorified nature life, he uses the obvious likes of Touchstone and Jaques to do this, however Audrey is an unexpected contender in the parody area. Another way Audrey represents the parody of pastoral life is the way that she doesn't really get what she wants in the end compared to Rosalind and Celia, you can tell that Touchstone does love Audrey, but it is a more lustful love than anything. They will eventually grow old to resent each other, and I believe Audrey wants more than just lustful love. Yes, she found the man to whisk her away to city life, but he really doesn't want her forever, plus the marriage is unlawful and it will affect later life greatly. I think what Shakespeare is trying to do with Audrey, basically, is to show people how unrealistic they're being and what they're giving up. He's not being biased and saying the city is better, but what he is saying is that the countryside is probably just as bad, everything is just as unclean and nothing is pure either. Shakespeare loved to use parody to belittle the idea of this fantasy world of the countryside, and Audrey is another way of showing this. Also, Like Dorcas and Mopsa in 'The Winter's Tale', Audrey is a country girl looking for love. When she's not busy herding goats, she's being chased by either Touchstone or William. Audrey's not the brightest sunbeam in the sky, so it's a bit of a surprise when Touchstone declares that he's going to marry her. While Touchstone spends most of his time running around using his linguistic language on everyone, Audrey has a very hard time with basic vocabulary. Audrey manages to misunderstand the words "poetical", "features", "honest", and "foul" the first time she appears on stage. I believe again, this is another feature of Shakespeare contrasting city and countryside life. While Touchstone has all of this fancy knowledge, Audrey suffers even with the more common of words. She has had little education in her life, the most she is good for is being the common housewife, cleaning and used to raise a family. Very old ethics but it's how she is and how she was raised. This context in the historical version is something I'm going to use in our contemporary film, the dumb version of her in the play is definitely a heavy influence in my own character. I like the fact that Touchstone and William are after her because isn't unheard of that men will try and hit on the barmaids at a pub, it's a great fitting contemporary scene.
Research
'As You Like It' is a play that really shows how Shakespeare felt about popular writing and culture in the time of his life. The play was most likely written between 1598 and 1600. As I've previously mentioned, Shakespeare was a fan of making parodies of current work surrounding him in the writing scene, I wanted to find a story published before 'As You Like It' that could possibly be a stimulus for his parody, I found a play called 'Rosalynde', written by Thomas Lodge in "1586-87" and published in "1590". People describe 'Rosalynde' as an "extremely popular prose romance" and it obviously took city life by storm, being this beautiful pure nature story that everyone dreamed of. Shakespeare was very aware of this play as it was a part of popular culture and taking in his views, obviously wanted to create a parody of this play. One of the main ways Shakespeare satirises 'Rosalynde' is using the setting of the "Forest of Ardenne" (that is described as an "ancient woodland comprising parts of France") and turning into a place of uncleanliness and impurity. He recreates this heaven-like forest using the name "Forest of Arden" and recreates the inhabitants of the forest using the art of satire. Instead of enforcing the perceptions of the countryside women being entirely pure, Shakespeare decided to be completely blunt with his hoping audience and show them a reality most of them were oblivious to. Audrey is a great representative of this reality, as I've previously said she is a young woman of the countryside (or in my case, a woman of the bar) who is impure, as soon as she comes on stage she shows the audience how dumb and uneducated she is, which is exactly what I'll be doing as soon as my scene comes into play. I'll show the audience how much of a dumb barmaid I am. Touchstone calls her a slut, although she denies this the Elizabethan audience are more inclined to believe Touchstone, only because of his mass wit and his previous encounters with other characters, the audience are immediately aware that Audrey isn't what she seems, even if they refuse to believe it. Because I'm portraying Audrey as a woman of many dreams, I feel this research will really back up my characterisation because it's exactly what the Elizabethan audience feels. The audience (if from the city) will have this dream location of the countryside, well my Audrey feels the same about the richer life.
Back Story
Past
Audrey has always been a girl living in the seaside town of Portsmouth. In the play (present day) her parents aren't mentioned and are not around in the play. She lives in a little gathering of farm houses with characters like William and Corin. I believe she had parents around her growing up, but at the same time I believe that these parents were more interested in the finer things in life and didn't really care for her much. They were normal parents, they sent her to school and she got below average GCSE grades, they didn't really expect much of her growing up. When Audrey tried to get a job anywhere remotely involving skill, she was turned down because she didn't have the right grades and no one thought she was clever enough, or there were better contenders. Audrey was counted as unemployable as a school leaver, and spent most of her time with William as they were growing up in Southsea and in school together. William, also being a raggedy misbehaving boy wasn't ready for the employment life either. I believe when she was younger William was her best friend growing up, they used to spend countless of hours together and they loved what they had in their own little world. However, Audrey's mother used to feed her stories of what it was like in the richer world. Rich buildings, clean streets, fine food and handsome men in suits. Audrey's parents used to take many trips to cities such as Paris and London when they could, leaving Audrey by herself. One day, when Audrey was 17, her parents had decided they were going to move out of Portsmouth to pursue richer life. Audrey's parents now live in London, but she is happy to take employment under a pub owner and has lived that way ever since she was 18.
Present
Audrey has worked in the pub for a few years now and is becoming more serious about being a woman, she is even saving up to get a house of her own that her parents don't pay for. Although she has a love for William she is becoming tired of his company, William has grown a huge superficial love for Audrey and wants them to get more serious, but Audrey still pursues her dream of finding an educated man from the world of city life. She has high hopes and when discovering Touchstone she immediately wants to get to know him, Touchstone and William are in battle for Audrey but because William is a coward he will not challenge Touchstone, so eventually after a while Audrey is to get married to Touchstone. Audrey has a lustful love for him, since she is everything he is after, she knows she wants what he has to offer but secretly I believe she knows what is to happen. Touchstone doesn't really want her for love, he wants her for lust, but she stays oblivious to this because this is the one chance she's going to have the man of her dreams.
Future
Audrey has a promising future of a new woman in the city, Touchstone manages to give her the education and life she always dreamed of. Audrey, although not losing her working class charm, becomes a proper woman, not forgetting her past, she misses her life in Portsmouth greatly. She and Touchstone live together and have gradually lost their enjoyment in each other's company, none the less it is still lustful at times. Audrey has become a gold digger in a sense, and takes advantage of all of the income Touchstone gets to help her marriage move swiftly along. Audrey is now good friends with Celia and Rosalind, although doesn't enjoy their company as much as she enjoyed William's. She realises that her dream of becoming a city woman were far from what the reality actually is, and that her life in the city isn't as fulfilling as she originally planned. She is content however, and continues to live on this way.
Description of the Character
Costume
My costume is going to be something casual, in most pubs woman behind the bar would wear casual clothes, sometimes there are uniforms but in the bar there is nothing expected to wear in this bar's uniform code. In an Elizabethan version of the play, she would probably wear raggedy clothing and farm garments.
Vocal Aspects
I think Audrey should have a fairly teenage-dumb like voice, if I was going to use anyone as an example I would probably use Amy Childs, formerly known as a "The Only Way is Essex" star, typically dumb, she is known for her stupidity but has a wide fan base because of it, here is a video of her talking to an interviewer:
I don't really want to use the Essex accent but I believe the tone in her voice is something to keep in mind, she is known for being a bit dumb and her voice is a main reason for this, even though she is quite intelligent and well known in the fashion industry.
Posture
Audrey wouldn't have a naturally good posture, it would be slightly off from leaving over a bar day-in day-out. She has never really cared for her posture and is leaning over most of the time in our scene anyway.
Personality
Audrey has a fun personality, she is enthusiastic and extremely flirty to Touchstone. She wants someone to whisk her away from this average lifestyle and I believe that this is what she has made her personality to be. She isn't extremely flattering in looks so she needs to have an out-going and flirty personality to seem attractive to men. She's never really had a proper love before, and is hoping to get that. But her personality has made her go down the wrong path to get what she truly wants.
Status
Relationships with Other Characters
Audrey doesn't really encounter anymore characters other than Jaques, Sir Oliver Martex and Touchstone in the scene I'm playing her in, and even then she really only has a proper relationship with Touchstone.
Jaques - Jaques relationship with Audrey isn't much, she is the man who gives her away, fully knowing that Touchstone is using her for lust. He doesn't try to stop this, he merely gets involved in their marriage because he wants to have a good laugh.
Sir Oliver Martex - Martex has a tiny relationship with Audrey, even less than Jaques, he is the man who Touchstone has planned to marry Audrey and him together.
Touchstone - Touchstone is the man Audrey falls in love, or rather lust with. He is the person she is involved with most in the play and ends up marrying her. He chases after her throughout, challenging William for her love and wins. He wants to just lead her into bed but after a while eventually falls in complete lust with her as well. Audrey and Touchstone's relationship is the parody of the typical hero and heroine relationship, their relationship shows what life was really like for people in the city and what life was like for people in the country. They are eventually married by the goddess Hymen with three other couples.
Lines for Status Transactions
"Your features, lord warrant us! What features?" - This is the first thing Audrey says to Touchstone. She is trying to shut down Touchstone after he tries to attract her with his "features", which to her are non-existent. She believes he's just another man at the bar.
"I do not know what “poetical” is. Is it honest in deed and word? Is it a true thing?" - In this line she severely lowers her status in front of Touchstone, she is bringing herself down because she doesn't know what the word "poetical" means, and to Touchstone this is hilarious because after trying to lower his status he regains it incredibly quickly. Audrey soon realises she is out of her depth here.
"Do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical?" - Her status is still low at this point, she realises that she is out of her depth and decides to stay under Touchstone's wrath of words. She asks what he wants, soon realising that he is not what he seems. He is someone greater, is he the man she has dreamed of?
"Would you not have me honest?" - She is asking Touchstone if he would have her chaste, as in if he would have her pure. Although we all know that Audrey is nothing of the sort. Her status grows a little here, as she is offering him something better and she grows confident, but she is again shot down again with her honesty later on.
"Well, I am not fair, and therefore I pray the gods make me honest." - She is saying here that she isn't beautiful, so she hopes that the gods have made her pure, however she isn't pure and she knows she isn't beautiful. This means she lowers her status again.
"I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul." - She has no idea what the word foul means and Touchstone knows this, her status is still low.
Conclusion
Audrey is a fun loving girl who works at a bar and has been in a working class family all of her life. Waiting for her city like prince to take her away, she is working her days away and gradually getting older. When she meets someone just like her prince, she jumps straight in there with her flirty-like charm, and it's something she loves to do, flirt. After having an awkward childhood with her parents, she's trying to make a life for herself. Her posture is awkward and her voice makes her look dumb, but she is ready for anything. She eventually marries Touchstone and decides to live a city life with him. I'm glad I looked into the character of Audrey through this layout of character study because now I feel I can portray her in a much better light when filming. I'm excited to start filming with everything I have in mind now.
One of Audrey's main functions as a character with context in the play is the
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| Touchstone and Audrey having a chat in the wild forest |
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| Again, another Elizabethan take on Touchstone and Audrey |
Research
'As You Like It' is a play that really shows how Shakespeare felt about popular writing and culture in the time of his life. The play was most likely written between 1598 and 1600. As I've previously mentioned, Shakespeare was a fan of making parodies of current work surrounding him in the writing scene, I wanted to find a story published before 'As You Like It' that could possibly be a stimulus for his parody, I found a play called 'Rosalynde', written by Thomas Lodge in "1586-87" and published in "1590". People describe 'Rosalynde' as an "extremely popular prose romance" and it obviously took city life by storm, being this beautiful pure nature story that everyone dreamed of. Shakespeare was very aware of this play as it was a part of popular culture and taking in his views, obviously wanted to create a parody of this play. One of the main ways Shakespeare satirises 'Rosalynde' is using the setting of the "Forest of Ardenne" (that is described as an "ancient woodland comprising parts of France") and turning into a place of uncleanliness and impurity. He recreates this heaven-like forest using the name "Forest of Arden" and recreates the inhabitants of the forest using the art of satire. Instead of enforcing the perceptions of the countryside women being entirely pure, Shakespeare decided to be completely blunt with his hoping audience and show them a reality most of them were oblivious to. Audrey is a great representative of this reality, as I've previously said she is a young woman of the countryside (or in my case, a woman of the bar) who is impure, as soon as she comes on stage she shows the audience how dumb and uneducated she is, which is exactly what I'll be doing as soon as my scene comes into play. I'll show the audience how much of a dumb barmaid I am. Touchstone calls her a slut, although she denies this the Elizabethan audience are more inclined to believe Touchstone, only because of his mass wit and his previous encounters with other characters, the audience are immediately aware that Audrey isn't what she seems, even if they refuse to believe it. Because I'm portraying Audrey as a woman of many dreams, I feel this research will really back up my characterisation because it's exactly what the Elizabethan audience feels. The audience (if from the city) will have this dream location of the countryside, well my Audrey feels the same about the richer life.
Back Story
Past
Audrey has always been a girl living in the seaside town of Portsmouth. In the play (present day) her parents aren't mentioned and are not around in the play. She lives in a little gathering of farm houses with characters like William and Corin. I believe she had parents around her growing up, but at the same time I believe that these parents were more interested in the finer things in life and didn't really care for her much. They were normal parents, they sent her to school and she got below average GCSE grades, they didn't really expect much of her growing up. When Audrey tried to get a job anywhere remotely involving skill, she was turned down because she didn't have the right grades and no one thought she was clever enough, or there were better contenders. Audrey was counted as unemployable as a school leaver, and spent most of her time with William as they were growing up in Southsea and in school together. William, also being a raggedy misbehaving boy wasn't ready for the employment life either. I believe when she was younger William was her best friend growing up, they used to spend countless of hours together and they loved what they had in their own little world. However, Audrey's mother used to feed her stories of what it was like in the richer world. Rich buildings, clean streets, fine food and handsome men in suits. Audrey's parents used to take many trips to cities such as Paris and London when they could, leaving Audrey by herself. One day, when Audrey was 17, her parents had decided they were going to move out of Portsmouth to pursue richer life. Audrey's parents now live in London, but she is happy to take employment under a pub owner and has lived that way ever since she was 18.
Present
Audrey has worked in the pub for a few years now and is becoming more serious about being a woman, she is even saving up to get a house of her own that her parents don't pay for. Although she has a love for William she is becoming tired of his company, William has grown a huge superficial love for Audrey and wants them to get more serious, but Audrey still pursues her dream of finding an educated man from the world of city life. She has high hopes and when discovering Touchstone she immediately wants to get to know him, Touchstone and William are in battle for Audrey but because William is a coward he will not challenge Touchstone, so eventually after a while Audrey is to get married to Touchstone. Audrey has a lustful love for him, since she is everything he is after, she knows she wants what he has to offer but secretly I believe she knows what is to happen. Touchstone doesn't really want her for love, he wants her for lust, but she stays oblivious to this because this is the one chance she's going to have the man of her dreams.
Future
Audrey has a promising future of a new woman in the city, Touchstone manages to give her the education and life she always dreamed of. Audrey, although not losing her working class charm, becomes a proper woman, not forgetting her past, she misses her life in Portsmouth greatly. She and Touchstone live together and have gradually lost their enjoyment in each other's company, none the less it is still lustful at times. Audrey has become a gold digger in a sense, and takes advantage of all of the income Touchstone gets to help her marriage move swiftly along. Audrey is now good friends with Celia and Rosalind, although doesn't enjoy their company as much as she enjoyed William's. She realises that her dream of becoming a city woman were far from what the reality actually is, and that her life in the city isn't as fulfilling as she originally planned. She is content however, and continues to live on this way.
Description of the Character
Costume
My costume is going to be something casual, in most pubs woman behind the bar would wear casual clothes, sometimes there are uniforms but in the bar there is nothing expected to wear in this bar's uniform code. In an Elizabethan version of the play, she would probably wear raggedy clothing and farm garments.
Vocal Aspects
I think Audrey should have a fairly teenage-dumb like voice, if I was going to use anyone as an example I would probably use Amy Childs, formerly known as a "The Only Way is Essex" star, typically dumb, she is known for her stupidity but has a wide fan base because of it, here is a video of her talking to an interviewer:
Posture
Audrey wouldn't have a naturally good posture, it would be slightly off from leaving over a bar day-in day-out. She has never really cared for her posture and is leaning over most of the time in our scene anyway.
Personality
Audrey has a fun personality, she is enthusiastic and extremely flirty to Touchstone. She wants someone to whisk her away from this average lifestyle and I believe that this is what she has made her personality to be. She isn't extremely flattering in looks so she needs to have an out-going and flirty personality to seem attractive to men. She's never really had a proper love before, and is hoping to get that. But her personality has made her go down the wrong path to get what she truly wants.
Status
Relationships with Other Characters
Audrey doesn't really encounter anymore characters other than Jaques, Sir Oliver Martex and Touchstone in the scene I'm playing her in, and even then she really only has a proper relationship with Touchstone.
Jaques - Jaques relationship with Audrey isn't much, she is the man who gives her away, fully knowing that Touchstone is using her for lust. He doesn't try to stop this, he merely gets involved in their marriage because he wants to have a good laugh.
Sir Oliver Martex - Martex has a tiny relationship with Audrey, even less than Jaques, he is the man who Touchstone has planned to marry Audrey and him together.
Touchstone - Touchstone is the man Audrey falls in love, or rather lust with. He is the person she is involved with most in the play and ends up marrying her. He chases after her throughout, challenging William for her love and wins. He wants to just lead her into bed but after a while eventually falls in complete lust with her as well. Audrey and Touchstone's relationship is the parody of the typical hero and heroine relationship, their relationship shows what life was really like for people in the city and what life was like for people in the country. They are eventually married by the goddess Hymen with three other couples.
Lines for Status Transactions
"Your features, lord warrant us! What features?" - This is the first thing Audrey says to Touchstone. She is trying to shut down Touchstone after he tries to attract her with his "features", which to her are non-existent. She believes he's just another man at the bar.
"I do not know what “poetical” is. Is it honest in deed and word? Is it a true thing?" - In this line she severely lowers her status in front of Touchstone, she is bringing herself down because she doesn't know what the word "poetical" means, and to Touchstone this is hilarious because after trying to lower his status he regains it incredibly quickly. Audrey soon realises she is out of her depth here.
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| Christopher Oden as Touchstone and Shannon Warrick as Audrey |
"Do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical?" - Her status is still low at this point, she realises that she is out of her depth and decides to stay under Touchstone's wrath of words. She asks what he wants, soon realising that he is not what he seems. He is someone greater, is he the man she has dreamed of?
"Would you not have me honest?" - She is asking Touchstone if he would have her chaste, as in if he would have her pure. Although we all know that Audrey is nothing of the sort. Her status grows a little here, as she is offering him something better and she grows confident, but she is again shot down again with her honesty later on.
"Well, I am not fair, and therefore I pray the gods make me honest." - She is saying here that she isn't beautiful, so she hopes that the gods have made her pure, however she isn't pure and she knows she isn't beautiful. This means she lowers her status again.
"I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul." - She has no idea what the word foul means and Touchstone knows this, her status is still low.
Conclusion
Audrey is a fun loving girl who works at a bar and has been in a working class family all of her life. Waiting for her city like prince to take her away, she is working her days away and gradually getting older. When she meets someone just like her prince, she jumps straight in there with her flirty-like charm, and it's something she loves to do, flirt. After having an awkward childhood with her parents, she's trying to make a life for herself. Her posture is awkward and her voice makes her look dumb, but she is ready for anything. She eventually marries Touchstone and decides to live a city life with him. I'm glad I looked into the character of Audrey through this layout of character study because now I feel I can portray her in a much better light when filming. I'm excited to start filming with everything I have in mind now.
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