Sibling Rivalry

In act I a prevalent theme is sibling rivalry. It can be shown through Duke Frederick and Duke senior as well the conflict between Oliver and Orlando. Shakespeare suggests that jealousy contributes strongly to sibling rivalry through the parallels that can be drawn through Duke Frederick and Oliver. Both are jealous of their brother’s popularity and become paranoid. Oliver babbles to himself about Orlando’s motives for power and ability to attain it even though Orlando only wants an education. Frederick does something similar although instead of commenting about Senior directly he comments about Rosalind, his brother’s daughter, to his own daughter Celia. Like Oliver, Duke Frederick talks about Rosalind’s likability as a threat to Celia, showing his own insecurity. When Celia rejects her father’s ideals and goes with Rosalind to Arden she shows that sibling rivalry is not passed down. The ideals of our parents are not necessarily our ideals. The issue of family loyalty comes up when Celia leaves her father. In this situation personal loyalty trumps family loyalty and rightly so because Frederick’s issues with his brother deny family loyalty in the first place.  The situation with Rosalind staying with Celia and Duke Frederick is complicated, but it doesn’t become a big family drama like one might expect.  Whilst Oliver and Frederick are both power hungry and insecure they are oposites in priminginoture. Oliver is the eldest and abuses his power over the family fortune, whilst Frederick is the younger and over through his elder brother. Shakespeare suggests It doesn’t matter what order you were born in how you treat your sibling is your responsibility. Shakespeare also says that siblings can get along through Rosalind’s and Celia’s relationship. Although they are not exactly sisters they are related by blood and are very close, they also pose as brother and sister when they go to Arden. The forest signifying nature also implies that their good sibling relationship is natural and sibling drama is caused by problems like greed for money and power, issues of the city. Overall Shakespeare says that sibling rivalry isn’t really a family matter it’s a personal issue.