Wednesday, April 11, 2012

How are Rosalind and Celia related? Who are their fathers? Where do they all live? Why doesn't Rosalind live with her father?the question is part...

All good questions, and ones with really important answers for the way you look at the play. The two Dukes, Duke Senior (banished, living out in the forest) and Duke Frederick (currently the Duke) are brothers.


Rosalind is Duke Senior's daughter and Celia is Duke Frederick's daughter, though, according to Le Beau, she doesn't really behave like she is. When Orlando asks him which of the two girls at the wrestling match is the Duke's daughter, Le Beau responds:



Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners:
But yet indeed the smaller is his daughter:
The other is daughter to the banish`d duke,
And here detain`d by her usurping uncle,
To keep his daughter company; whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters.



So the two girls are incredibly close - as close, as they say and more than one other character says at various points in the play, as sisters are. But they aren't sisters - they're cousins!


So the Duke lives in the Duke's palace, and with him lives his daughter, Celia. Rosalind lives with Celia and the Duke (though of course - he does banish her after the wrestling!). Rosalind's father, the Old Duke (Duke Senior) has been banished into the forest, and he lives there. So that's why father and daughter don't live together.


One small word of warning: though Rosalind and Celia are cousins, 'cousin' in Shakespeare doesn't always mean 'cousin' as we mean it - it can just mean a close friend or family member.


Hope it helps!

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