According to his brother, Oliver, Orlando is of noble
character, unschooled yet somehow learned, full of noble purposes,
and loved by people of all ranks as if he had enchanted them (I.i.141–144). Although
this description comes from the one character who hates Orlando
and wishes him harm, it is an apt and generous picture of the hero
of As You Like It. Orlando has a brave and generous
spirit, though he does not possess Rosalind’s wit and insight. As
his love tutorial shows, he relies on commonplace clichés in matters
of love, declaring that without the fair Rosalind, he would die.
He does have a decent wit, however, as he demonstrates when he argues
with Jaques, suggesting that Jaques should seek out a fool who wanders about
the forest: “He is drowned in the brook. Look but in, and you shall
see him,” meaning that Jaques will see a fool in his own reflection
(III.ii.262–263).
But next to Rosalind, Orlando’s imagination burns a bit less bright.
This upstaging is no fault of Orlando’s, given the fullness of Rosalind’s
character; Shakespeare clearly intends his audience to delight in
the match. Time and again, Orlando performs tasks that reveal his
nobility and demonstrate why he is so well-loved: he travels with
the ancient Adam and makes a fool out of himself to secure the old
man food; he risks his life to save the brother who has plotted
against him; he cannot help but violate the many trees of Ardenne
with testaments of his love for Rosalind. In the beginning of the
play, he laments that his brother has denied him the schooling deserved
by a gentleman, but by the end, he has proven himself a gentleman
without the formality of that education.
