Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that
which God made, a
poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.
Orlando
As You Like It Act I, Scene i Line 33
As you can see, this is the 33rd line of the
play. So if you want context, you can pretty easily read all of the play up to
this point and have as much context as anyone. Here’s the link. But since you’re
probably not gonna read it, I’ll tell you a little. And by the way, you’re
missing another one of Will’s beginning of the play intros that I was talking about the other day, this one by the
main character Orlando himself.
Orlando’s talking to his older brother, Oliver, about the
fact that older bro is mistreating him. Apparently Oliver, being the oldest,
has inherited the farm, and everything else. And Oliver is sending another brother, Jaques, to
school but he’s keeping Orlando on the farm and he’s not doing anything to
benefit Orlando. He’s just treating him like a farmhand. And of course Orlando’s
fed up with it. I guess I can say I can’t blame him.
And by the way, for any of you newcomers to Will’s world
(hey, maybe that’s what I should call this: Will’s World), the word ‘marry’ has
nothing to do with marriage. It’s just an exclamation. I think it’s ‘By Mary’,
but you can insert ‘For goodness sakes’ or any number of meaningless
or explicit expressions.
So this conversation starts with Oliver asking Orlando what
he’s making (what’s he up to), and when Orlando says he’s making nothing Oliver
asks him what he’s marring (if he’s not making something he must be marring
something). And that’s why Orlandos’ talking about marring himself. The line
makes pretty good sense if you spend a few minutes with it. Honestly, if you
spent the amount of time with this line that you spent with that youtube video
of the guy pouring tomato juice in the other guy’s pants you’d understand it
full well. And what’s so funny/exciting/engaging/important about that guy
pouring tomato juice down that guy’s pants?
Well anyway, this whole dissatisfaction of Orlando with life
at home theme leads us into the main part of the play which is Orlando running
away and ending of in the forest of Arden with all the other runaways. It’s a
little like a Gilligan’s Island episode with a few more people.
This isn't Gilligan's Island, it's me and my big brother Dave. Unlike Oliver, Dave was (actually, still is) a really good big
brother. Of course, he didn’t inherit the farm from my dad or anything like that. So I’d never had occasion to
say anything to him about him helping to mar me. No, he's just a good guy.
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