CELIA: I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry.
Therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry.
She plays games with Rosalind throughout the play. Not necessarily in the way that she runs rings around her and leave Rosalind confused and dazed, but both compete in witty and humorous conversation. Celia’s relationship with Touchstone is based upon the respect that Touchstone manages to earn by being intelligent, witty, and by tricking and deceiving both women about things, such as when he talks about her and Rosalind both having beards.
When Le Beau is introduced to the play to interact with the other characters, Celia’s cheeky side begins to shine while she mocks and jeers at him by back chatting what he says or answering a question with another question:
LE BEAU: Fair princess, you have lost much good sport.
CELIA: ‘Sport’: of what colour?
LE BEAU: ‘What colour’, madam? How shall I answer you?
This is an example of Celia confusing Le Beau over the simplest of things when he is trying to inform her, Rosalind, and Touchstone of the wrestling math that is to take place.
In great contrast to this, when the fight between Charles, the Duke’s wrestler, and Orlando is about to commence Celia shows a caring side once again when she attempts to convince Orlando not to compete in the match. After the match Rosalind is struck by her immense, newfound love for Orlando, which is noticed by Celia, and in the next scene she takes an opportunity to tease Rosalind about it:
CELIA: Why cousin, why Rosalind – Cupid have mercy, not a word?
ROSALIND: Not one throw at a dog.
Duke Fredrick soon enters. He exclaims that Rosalind is to be banished following in the same footsteps as her father. Distraught by this she is not the only one who feels the pain and in a sense of great optimism she decides to go with Rosalind. At the time they do not know where until Celia says that they are going to go and:
CELIA: To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden.
Even though this should be a moment of sadness, having to leave your own home Celia manages to turn the whole situation round to change the mood, as if the whole journey is going to be an adventure and that they can dress up and change their identities to prevent them from being recognised or robbed with Rosalind becoming Ganymede and Celia becoming Aliena when going into the forest.
A more impatient Celia emerges as they enter the Forest of Arden because of her being tired, hungry, etc. Touchstone shares the feeling but Rosalind, though only dressing up as a man, is still in full spirit of things. When they meet Corin and Silvius where the stay Celia sees it as a “God send” to their journey and cheers up:
CELIA: I pray you bear with me, I cannot go no further.
When the poems that have been pinned to the trees by Orlando are found and Rosalind is pondering as to who might have possibly had written them, Celia, who has obviously realised that the poems have been written by Orlando again is faced with the opportunity to make fun and play games with Rosalind.
Once the major scene between Rosalind and Orlando has finished where they get very close and ask Celia to marry them together is finished, the reaction from Celia isn’t quite as positive towards Rosalind than it had been in the past scenes. This may be because Celia finds that what Rosalind is doing to Orlando is beginning to be cruel or perhaps maybe Celia is beginning to grow jealous of Rosalind. The slight anger that is portrayed by Celia is shown here:
ROSALIND: Never talk to me; I will weep.
CELIA: Do, I prithee; but yet have the grace to consider that tears do not become a man.
This possible jealousy or possibly anger is soon stopped when Oliver, Orlando’s older brother is reintroduced. Changed by the forest, and the way that he is saved by his brother, Oliver is favoured much by Celia who falls in love with him much in the same way as Rosalind had done with Orlando which gives Rosalind the chance to “get her own back” on Celia.
Though present in many of the scenes, Celia does not always say a lot but is a character who witnesses most of the events and potentially has the most knowledge of what exactly happens in the play. She also provides a lot of wit and humour to the play.