The character of life in As You Like It and King LearThrough comedy and tragedy Shakespeare reveals the vast expanses and deep depths of the character of life. For him they are not separate worlds of drama and romance, but poles of a continuum. The distinction between tragedy and comedy is called into question when we turn to Shakespeare. Although characters differ in stature and power, and events vary in weight and meaning, the movements of life in all of Shakespeare's works are governed by the same universal principles that move the events in our lives. Through myriad images Shakespeare portrays not only the character of man and society, but also the character of life itself. The difference between comedy and tragedy, success and failure, good fortune and catastrophe often seems to depend on a seemingly random event. In All's Well That Ends Well, Helene's pilgrimage to win back Bertram succeeds on the basis of her chance encounter with the mother of a virgin Bertram is courting. Time is another determining factor. Often a fraction of a second or a short interval makes the difference between life and death. In this small but very important interval of time, the character of life is revealed most clearly. In As You Like It, Orlando arrives in time to save Oliver from the snake coiling around his neck. Out of context, these events would seem like a very thin and fragile fabric on which to build great comedies and tragedies if it weren't for the fact that they hold true to a deeper level of causality in life. Suzanne Langer called the play "a picture of life triumphing over chance". It can otherwise be said that in comedy the apparently random events of life move in favor of a positive solution, while in tragedy they seem to conspire towards disaster. Helene Gardner observes that "the play is full of wrong aims, which do not 'fall on the inventor's head' but fortunately fail altogether." In the play, as so often in life, people are mercifully saved from being as evil as they would have liked to be.' 5Time as well as random events express another set of determinants, another level of causality in the larger plan of life. The critical gap between human action and its results depends on the response of surrounding life and expresses the character of life in the given circumstances.