Rural-Urban Settings: Revisit of William Shakespeare’s Plays - Pratiksha Chavada

Human beings have been used to living in the lap of nature since the beginning of human existence. The first and foremost thing men learn is to use natural resources to fulfill their needs and start developing a relationship with nature. As literature provides a reflection of life, it also presents nature as one of the characters by many writers. Among many, Shakespeare also used natural settings for many of his plays, setting characters to grow naturally. Even in his play, As You Like It, he presents the difference between rural and urban life. Although Shakespeare has used a pastoral setting to highlight the beauty of nature and simplicity of the natives, at the same time, it also provides natural philosophy which they learnt from their surroundings. However, the present research tries to revisit the plays of Shakespeare - mostly comedies - to understand the relationship between man and nature and also compare it with the present scenario where man is killing that long relationship in the name of development.