Northrop Frye coined the term “The Green World” to describe a setting that recurs throughout literature. In Shakespeare’s plays, characters enter the forest to face inner obstacles and gain personal insight. The Green World offers elements of magic and supernatural power, but must be survived to restore balance to the world. Shakespeare’s female characters often flee to the forest to escape the strict, law-based City World run by men. The forest is considered a polar opposite of the City World, following the laws of nature instead of the laws of man. The Green World is needed to restore balance to the normal world, and in Shakespeare’s plays, marriage and life cannot continue on their proper course until the extremes of the city are brought back into balance with the forces of the Green World.
In his discussion of the works of William Shakespeare, literary critic Northrop Frye coined the term “The Green World” to describe a particular setting that recurs throughout literature. In the literary tradition, a hero must pass several steps before being able to overcome his particular challenges. Often a character disappears into a perfectly natural environment, most often a forest, to face inner obstacles and gain personal insight. Adventures in the Green World generally offer elements of magic, supernatural power, and reigning chaos, but must be survived to restore balance to the world.
Even in Shakespeare’s time, dense forests remained largely impenetrable and dark places. Heavy woods such as the Black Forest of Europe were considered great places of fear and perhaps dark magic Often, Shakespeare would place one of these transformative areas on the edge of a large city, allowing his characters to easily escape a strict, law-based City World in a natural world nearby.
In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, four young characters are denied the marriage they desire in the city and flee into the forest to hide from their families. However, instead of providing a safe haven, the play’s green world is in tremendous chaotic upheaval. The four young lovers become trapped in the plots of the fairy rulers of the forest and cannot get out of it until each falls in love with the right person, accomplished by a fairy spell. Once they have found their right partners, they are able to escape the forest and convince their families of their rightful marriage.
In another Shakespeare play, As You Like It, the green world is again used to determine who should marry whom. Rosalind and Celia enter the Forest of Arden to find Rosalind’s father, an exiled duke. While stranded in the woods, four couples become hopelessly entangled in romance and only Rosalind’s sane mind can solve the problems. Once this is accomplished, Rosalind is able to lead the company out of the forest and even bring her father back to her rightful place.
The green world is often portrayed as a motherly place, particularly in Shakespeare’s work. The women are forced to flee to the forest after the city world run by men threatens their lives or livelihoods. Several women, including Rosalind and Celia, enter the forest disguised as men, but do not leave until they resume their roles as women. In both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It, the forest is considered a polar opposite of the City World, oriented towards women instead of men, following the laws of nature instead of the laws of man.
Scholars suggest that forests are largely metaphorical, and Shakespeare seems to have left clues throughout his Green World plays that forests are more than just woodlands. In addition to populating them with fairies and magic, several creatures not native to European forests appear, including lions and palm trees.
The green world is needed to restore balance to the normal world. While the world of the city is strictly controlled by law, the world of the forest is ruled by total chaos. In the hero’s journey, a person raised in the world of the city must enter the forest to gain information about himself. In Shakespeare’s play, the necessity is even clearer, as marriage and life cannot continue on their proper course until the extremes of the city are brought back into balance with the forces of the Green World.
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