Belonging Essay
“The longing to belong seems to be ancient and is at the core of our nature”
The 1623 play As You Like It (AYLI) by William Shakespeare, the 2004 poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ from the Immigrant Chronicle by Peter Skryznecki and the 1942 painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. The play, poem and painting were constructed by completely different composers with completely different contexts, and this fact alone shows us that belonging is universal and will always play an important role in human life.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, written in 1943, demonstrates that a basic need of human beings is to feel a sense of love, acceptance and belonging in order to avoid problems such as loneliness and depression. The relevance of his theory to our modern world is astounding; his interpretations of the human condition remain fundamentally helpful in understanding social behaviours. All three texts that will be analysed support Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and prove that one needs a sense of belonging to feel happiness, security and self-esteem, but also present the duality of belonging showing that the absence of belonging can lead to loneliness, isolation and even depression.
In As You Like It (AYLI), it is the setting that plays a crucial role in communicating belonging along with Shakespeare’s effective use of juxtaposition of settings, structure, form and genre. The play is a pastoral comedy because it idealises nature and rural life but also mocks the simple life within the Forest. It provides a place of healing where true identities can be found. The structure of AYLI allows Shakespeare to use the juxtaposition of acts and scenes to emphasize the contrasts between the two settings; the Court and the Forest of Arden which in turn explores the ambiguity of belonging.
In Act 1 the play is set in various parts of the Court. The Elizabethan chain of being is disturbed by the usurpation of Duke Senior. Oliver and Orlando have an unusual and unnatural relationship as brothers
The 1623 play As You Like It (AYLI) by William Shakespeare, the 2004 poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ from the Immigrant Chronicle by Peter Skryznecki and the 1942 painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. The play, poem and painting were constructed by completely different composers with completely different contexts, and this fact alone shows us that belonging is universal and will always play an important role in human life.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, written in 1943, demonstrates that a basic need of human beings is to feel a sense of love, acceptance and belonging in order to avoid problems such as loneliness and depression. The relevance of his theory to our modern world is astounding; his interpretations of the human condition remain fundamentally helpful in understanding social behaviours. All three texts that will be analysed support Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and prove that one needs a sense of belonging to feel happiness, security and self-esteem, but also present the duality of belonging showing that the absence of belonging can lead to loneliness, isolation and even depression.
In As You Like It (AYLI), it is the setting that plays a crucial role in communicating belonging along with Shakespeare’s effective use of juxtaposition of settings, structure, form and genre. The play is a pastoral comedy because it idealises nature and rural life but also mocks the simple life within the Forest. It provides a place of healing where true identities can be found. The structure of AYLI allows Shakespeare to use the juxtaposition of acts and scenes to emphasize the contrasts between the two settings; the Court and the Forest of Arden which in turn explores the ambiguity of belonging.
In Act 1 the play is set in various parts of the Court. The Elizabethan chain of being is disturbed by the usurpation of Duke Senior. Oliver and Orlando have an unusual and unnatural relationship as brothers