As You Like It - 3

The amount of time covered in this play cannot be very long.  There are not many occasions where the time or days are mentioned so they sort of run together.  There are some events in the beginning that occur offstage, but most of the play's events occur onstage.  One event that is spoken of which the audience just has to take the character's words for it is the scene in the forest where Oliver is sleeping under the tree.  "A green gilded snake had wreathed itself, who with her head nimble in threats approached the opening of his mouth.... A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch, when that the sleeping man should stir" (IV.iii.pg 64).  Oliver must explain the details of this event as it did not happen onstage.  I do not believe that there is a meaning in which actions are dramatized and which are reported.  I thought the play's structure was pretty tight as the events happened right after another with no real breaks besides scene changes. Overall, I thought the play was O.K.  I deemed it sort of unreal because as soon as Rosalind and Orlando saw each other, they were in love.  This sort of thing happens many times in Shakespeare's plays so I was not really surprised.