It is February, and across the UK, many are observing a season of reflecting on LGBTQ+ histories. At Soulton Hall, this context makes it natural to bring to mind the play that inhabits our landscape: As You Like It.
This text has long been cherished by those who have had to navigate the complexities of identity, and for obvious reasons. It is a masterpiece of gender fluidity, a subversion of rigid social roles, and a profound search for a life lived authentically. Yet, for Shakespeare, this was more than a light-hearted comedy. It was a concern he returned to a number of times in his work, often through the idea of the “liminal space”: the sanctuary where a fractured person can finally become whole.
Shakespeare never suggests that the world is inherently kind. He acknowledges that those who seek the woods are often driven there by the cruelty and exclusion of the “courtly” world. He recognized the reality of persecution and the “mountainish inhumanity” that can take hold in a society defined by fear.
This was no mere poetic metaphor. Shakespeare was writing at a time of feverish xenophobia. In his contribution to the then-banned play The Book of Sir Thomas More, he wrote a searing defense of refugees—the “wretched strangers” being hunted by a mob. He asked the persecutors to imagine themselves in the strangers’ case:
“Whither would you go? / What country, by the nature of your error, / Should give you harbour? … Why, you must needs be strangers.”
He acknowledged that outside the canopy, people have always been—and are—marginalized for their identities, their loyalties, and their truths.
The “Arden obsession” is about what happens when you remove that threat. In the sanctuary of the trees, the characters don’t just hide; they gather. They celebrate. They practice a new way of being together so they can support one another in discovering who they are:
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Rosalind finds the agency to lead, proving the soul isn’t bound by fixed or narrow roles.
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Orlando is allowed to be vulnerable, even when his expressions of love are “naff” and imperfect.
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Oliver finds the clarity to shed a deep-seated hatred he carried without understanding, finally choosing kindness.
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Silvius finds dignity in devotion, and Audrey finds a path to honesty.
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Touchstone drops the professional “fool” to be real, while Celia finds bravery in chosen kinship.
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Phebe accepts a grounded heart over courtly games.
This same obsession appears in Henry VIII. When Cardinal Wolsey is stripped of his high office and “earthly dignities,” he discovers a truth that the characters in Arden know well:
“I know myself now; and I feel within me / A peace above all earthly dignities, / A still and quiet conscience.”
This is that theme distilled. It is the belief that self-knowledge and a quiet conscience are the only things that truly matter.
As You Like It concludes with the Dance of Harmony. This is not merely a party; it is a demonstration of radical inclusion where difference is enjoyed.
The characters eventually leave the woods, but they take this harmony back with them. They return with the intent to make the wider world as safe and as honest as the forest. At Soulton, we value this aspiration and the importance of sanctuary. We believe in the necessity of taking that harmony back into our communities to ensure no one is excluded for being who they are.
Diversity and Inclusion being celebrated at Soulton Hall
