A Green World

Continuing the theme of firsts, 2 Gents probably marks Shakespeare’s first use of what Northrop Frye calls the Green World, in which the setting of the play in a forest or wilderness becomes an important symbolic element of the story: a metaphor for a character's situation and development.

“The forest is where the greatest romantic excess is perpetrated … but it is also the Arcadia where all wrongs are righted.” 

The forest/wilderness is a paradise or refuge:

• Although he was forced into it - and rather to his own surprise, I think - Valentine enjoys his life in the woods
• The exiled Duke (Rosalind’s father) in As You Like It happily lives with his loyal men in the forest of Arden “like the old Robin Hood of England”
• Miranda, raised in isolation on a desert island in The Tempest, has none of the fake and artificial qualities of girls raised at court
• Perdita, the lost princess of The Winter’s Tale, is raised in a rural paradise of shepherds of flowers

The forest is a source of magic/danger:

• Valentine is kidnapped by the outlaws - dragged into his forest life against his will. Outlaws are - by their very name - wild and out of control. And in an out-of-control world, anything can happen. (Like... you might be moved to give up the love of your life to your best friend??)
• In As You Like It's forest of Arden Oliver learns to value his younger brother for the first time when Orlando saves him from death at the hands of a serpent and a lion
• Propsero and Miranda can only survive on their island in The Tempest with the aid and assitance of their non-human companions: the spirit Ariel and the monster Caliban
• The fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – especially Puck – are alien creatures of the forest, with little or no sympathy for human feelings

The forest is a proving ground for adulthood:

•  Leaving the civilized world (often of a court) and moving into a wilderness is an essential element in the growing up of many Shakespeare characters
• Valentine in 2 Gents clearly learns a lot about leadership and responsibility in his time with the Outlaws
• Rosalind – and all the younger generation – endure hard times in the forest of Arden in As You Like It before returning, wiser and more mature, to their rightful places
• In Hamlet, the title character’s time with the pirates serves the same symbolic purpose. He returns to Denmark in Act 5 a man of deeds, not just words.

• This idea of separation from society as a juvenile in order to return as an adult is one of the ideas explored by Marjorie Garber in her excellent book Coming of Age in Shakespeare

The forest is a place of rebirth or redemption:

• Female characters often die (literally or symbolically) in Shakespeare’s Green World
• Julia swoons as Sebastian and is revived as herself
• The outlaws in 2Gents mention Robin Hood who created “a better kind of society than those who make him an outlaw can produce” (N Frye) Is this to be Valentine’s destiny as the outlaw leader?
• In Cymbeline, Imogen ‘dies’ as Fidele to be reborn as herself
•  When green world is applied to concept of the ‘world of comedy’ and not just a literal forest, then the stories of Hermione, Perdita, Thaisa, Hero and Helena are all linked to Julia’s experience.

Interestingly, in 2 Gents the 'transforming journey by sea' and the 'regeneration in the green world' are separate incidents in the plot. By the time he gets to Hamlet Shakespeare’s acceptance of these crucial rite-of-passage symbols is so strong that he is almost dismissive. Sea change and outlaws come together in one incident offstage as Hamlet’s fiery crucible of change is reported to us only at second-hand through his letter to Horatio.

In essence, the plots of Shakespeare's comedies and romances take young people away from the rigid and stifling society of their elders into a green world, or wilderness where opposing values rule. Having successfully navigated this treacherous yet magical world the young heroes and heroines return to court or city prepared to transform and heal the world their parents left them. 

And who could say that isn't an appropriate message for young people today?