As You Like It

Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede and then has Orlando court her-as-Ganymede-as-Rosalind. How many layers of identity and performance are operating in their wooing scenes? Map each layer and explain what each one reveals about the nature of love.

Jacques says 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.' Immediately after this speech, Orlando enters carrying old Adam on his back. How does Orlando's entrance undercut or complicate Jacques's philosophy?

Rosalind tells Orlando: 'Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.' Is she right? What is she trying to teach Orlando, and why does she need the Ganymede disguise to teach it?

Compare the four marriages at the end of the play: Orlando-Rosalind, Oliver-Celia, Silvius-Phebe, Touchstone-Audrey. What does each marriage represent about a different kind of love? Are they all equally convincing?

The Forest of Arden is often described as a utopia — a perfect alternative to the corrupt court. But is it? Find evidence that the forest is imperfect, uncomfortable, or morally complicated.

Duke Frederick converts to a religious life offstage, in four lines, without any dramatic preparation. Why does Shakespeare handle the villain's reformation so abruptly? Is this a flaw in the play or a deliberate choice?

Jacques refuses to participate in the final celebration and leaves to join the converted Duke Frederick. What does his departure mean? Is he a failure, a hero of integrity, or something else?

On Shakespeare's stage, Rosalind was played by a boy actor. In the Epilogue, the actor says 'If I were a woman.' How does the original casting convention change the meaning of the play's gender disguise? Can a modern production fully capture this effect?

Orlando's love poems are deliberately terrible. Why does Shakespeare make his romantic hero a bad poet? What is the relationship between the quality of Orlando's verse and the sincerity of his love?

Touchstone courts Audrey with no romantic illusion — he wants her physically and is open about it. Is his relationship with Audrey more honest than Orlando's idealized pursuit of Rosalind, or less?

Rosalind says: 'Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.' Is this line feminist, anti-feminist, or something more complicated? Consider who is speaking, to whom, and in what disguise.

The play is called As You Like It — addressed directly to the audience. What does this title mean? Is Shakespeare being modest, ironic, or making a philosophical statement about the relationship between art and its audience?

Phebe falls in love with Ganymede — that is, she falls in love with Rosalind in male disguise. What does this tell us about the nature of desire in the play? Is Phebe attracted to a person, a performance, or an image?

Compare Rosalind in As You Like It to Viola in Twelfth Night. Both disguise themselves as young men. But their experiences in disguise are very different. How does disguise liberate Rosalind but trap Viola?

The mock marriage between Rosalind-as-Ganymede and Orlando in Act IV uses real marriage language: 'I do take thee, Orlando, for my husband.' Is this a real marriage, a game, or both? What makes a marriage real?

Jacques's 'All the world's a stage' speech describes seven ages of human life. None of them are flattering. Is the speech cynical, realistic, or both? Which age describes Jacques himself?

Rosalind faints when she sees Orlando's blood on the handkerchief. She then tells Oliver: 'I pray you tell your brother how well I counterfeited.' What is the word 'counterfeited' doing in this scene? How many meanings does it have?

The play moves from court (verse) to forest (prose) and back to ceremony (verse) in Act V. How does the shift between verse and prose track the play's argument about freedom and social order?

Oliver tries to murder Orlando in Act I. In Act IV, Orlando saves Oliver from a lion, and Oliver is instantly reformed. Is Oliver's conversion psychologically convincing? Does it need to be?

Modern gender theory (Judith Butler's 'gender performativity') argues that gender is not an innate identity but a set of repeated performances. How does Rosalind's disguise as Ganymede support, complicate, or anticipate this theory?

Celia gives up everything to follow Rosalind into exile. Her friendship with Rosalind is the play's most stable and generous relationship. Why does Shakespeare make female friendship, rather than romantic love, the play's emotional foundation?

Compare the Forest of Arden to a modern 'escape' space — summer camp, college, a gap year abroad, a social media persona. What do these spaces have in common? What happens when you have to leave them?

Rosalind controls the play's plot more completely than almost any character in Shakespeare. She manages Orlando's courtship, orchestrates the final revelations, solves everyone's romantic problems, and delivers the Epilogue. Is this empowering, or does Shakespeare undercut her power by marrying her off at the end?

Touchstone describes seven degrees of the lie: the Retort Courteous, the Quip Modest, the Reply Churlish, the Reproof Valiant, the Countercheck Quarrelsome, the Lie with Circumstance, and the Lie Direct. What is Shakespeare saying about how language mediates conflict? How do people avoid saying what they mean?

The play's title — As You Like It — is a shrug. It says: here is a play, take it or leave it. How does this casual title relate to the Epilogue, where Rosalind literally asks the audience to approve or reject the play?

Shakespeare's source for As You Like It was Thomas Lodge's prose romance Rosalynde (1590). Shakespeare added Jacques, Touchstone, and the Epilogue — none of which appear in Lodge. What do these additions tell us about what Shakespeare thought the source material was missing?

Rosalind says she will cure Orlando of love by having him practice wooing on Ganymede. But the cure is actually the opposite — she is deepening his love by making it more realistic. Is this manipulation, education, or both?

Duke Senior says 'Sweet are the uses of adversity.' Is suffering actually good for the characters in this play, or is Senior just rationalizing exile? Does the forest genuinely improve people, or does it merely remove them from situations that made them worse?

The play has four marriages but only one courtship — Rosalind and Orlando's. Oliver-Celia happens in a scene, Silvius-Phebe is coerced, and Touchstone-Audrey is pragmatic. Why does Shakespeare give full courtship development to only one couple?

Is As You Like It a feminist play? Rosalind is the smartest, most powerful character — but she achieves her power through male disguise, and she surrenders it when she marries. Does the play liberate its heroine or contain her?