Forest of Arden is the Golden World in As You Like It

The Golden World refers to the Forest of Arden which represents the Conventional pastoral world without any artificial idealization of its unalloyed bliss. In this idyllic region, the passage of time is not measured by minutes or seconds, and therefore hours of worries and anxieties do not trouble one. Here as life is not burdened with duty, nor fraught with toil and moil, all spend their time happily and freely in a state of fanciful idleness. Life in the Forest of Arden away from evils and envy, intrigues and iniquities at court is in harmony with nature. In As You Like It, the Forest of Arden with its natural artifices is a haven of ease and contentment, peace and rest to Duke Senior who seeks pleasure even out of the bowl of melancholy and believes:

Life exempt from public haunt

Find tongues in trees, books, in running brooks

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

The Forest of Arden is free from the disgraces of reality like corruption, war, strife and avarice but cannot break loose from only one disgrace that is the inclemency of weather causing discomfort to Duke of Senior. The Golden World of the Forest of Arden has been splendidly celebrated in the song of Amiens:

Under the Greenwood true

Who loves to lie with me,

And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet bird’s throat

Come hither, come hither, come hither.

Here shall he see

No enemy.

But winter and rough weather.  

Explanation on “The Seven Ages” from As You Like It

All the word is a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.

This extract from “The Seven Ages”, a brief part of the play “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare has become a famous saying over the years. It is a piece of the great philosophy propounded by Shakespeare who is popularly known as the ‘Bard of Avon’. As per the ‘insightful view’ of Shakespeare, the world is a stage where all men and women perform under the instructions of the Fate. They are mere puppets in the hand of their destiny that is responsible for distributing joy and sorrow to them. Our birth on earth is like an actor’s entrance on the stage, and our death is like the actor’s exit or departure from the stage. During the time between our birth and death, or between our entrance and exit, we play many different roles and perform our duties. This period is divided into seven different phases of human life. Like actors on stage, we laugh and cry, live some moments of joy as well as some moments of sorrow, and then bid adieu to the world.