This is the first kind of love where both people love each other and no one else. This is the most simple love situation in the poem because it has no complications of people loving other people, or them not being allowed to love each other.
The couple that show the least romance throughout the play is Silvius and Phebe. Silvius is a kind-hearted shepherd who lives in the Forest of Arden. Phebe though is a rough shepherdess who finds Silvius annoying. The reason for this is because Silvius is deeply in love with Phebe, and she has rejected him many times. Phebe just ignores him though and because of this Silvius keeps on asking her to love him,
“ Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me, do not, Phebe.
Say that you love me not, but say not so in
Bitterness”.
The only person Phebe finds attractive in the play is Ganymede, who is actually Rosalind. She writes a letter to Ganymede asking him to marry her, and is rejected quite obviously. As a result of this Phebe is forced to marry Silvius in the end because she has no one else who likes her.
I think the aspect of love that is showed her is a cruel side of love. The reason I think this is because Phebe is virtually forced to marry Silvius when she does not want to. Silvius though is overjoyed because she is the love of his life and marrying her is his dream. This is unfair on Phebe though because she does not love him, but she has no one else so has to go along with it.
Celia and Oliver are the most surprising couple in the play I think. This is because they meet very close to the end of the play, and instantly fall in love with each other. Another reason for this is that Celia is a very kind, likeable woman throughout the play. Oliver on the other hand changes his personality. At the beginning of the play he is a very nasty man who says he hates his brother because of his good looks and his ability to be liked by everyone he meets. His personality changes though when he is sent into the forest to find his brother, Orlando, by Duke Frederick. He finds Orlando and then he meets Celia, who he instantly falls in love with. He then makes the story up of saving his brother from a lion and his personality completely changes.
“’Twas I, but ‘tis not I. I do not shame to tell you
What I was, since my conversion so sweetly tastes,
Being the thing I am”.
He turns into the complete opposite of his old personality, and becomes very nice. This also attracts Celia to him, as well as her thinking he is good looking. This attraction between the two of them means they become a couple and get married too.
This is the same kind of love as Orlando and Rosalind experienced. This is where they have no complications and both of them love each other. They also fall in love with the first sight of each other, as did Rosalind and Orlando.
The next couple I am going to examine from the play is the pairing of Touchstone and Audrey. This is possibly the strangest couple in the play. My reason for thinking this is that they are completely different people, and have very different backgrounds. Touchstone is a court jester, and has lived a sophisticated courtly life. Audrey on the other hand is a country girl who has been brought up on a farm. Even though there are these differences, the two still get married. They were meant to be wed quite early into the play, but this did not go as planned and they did not. They did how ever talk more about it and finally got married at the end of the play.
“Come sweet Audrey, we must be married”.
The love that this couple portray is lust. Touchstone may not have had the chance with a woman before, but he now has the chance of Audrey. He is only with her really because of the fact he can get things out of her, mainly sex. She is a country wench and Touchstone knows this, and I think this is the reason he goes after her,
“Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut
Were to put good meat into an unclean dish”.
