Silvius and Phoebe are two lower class peasants from the Forest of Arden; they are an example of unrequited love. Silvius is madly in love with Phoebe and his declaration of love are extremely romantic, ‘O thou didst never love so heartily’ and ‘Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?’ He has such devotion and dedication to Phoebe and the fact that his feelings are unrequited really provokes our sympathy for him, but it is also to our amusement at the ridiculous things he desperately declares. "How many actions most ridiculous / Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?" The abundant theme of unrequited love is not all that attracts us to these two characters. Phoebe’s obviously unrequited infatuation with Rosalind adds another obstacle for Silvius to overcome and this show just how strange love can become. Phoebe herself is driven to behave in silly ways as Silvius has for her. Most amusing is Rosalind’s dismay at having a woman falling in love with her, ‘Why look you so upon me?’ The comedy of the situation is most ridiculous, to speak of, after Oliver arrives in the Forest and Silvius repeatedly declares his love for Phoebe, who repeats such phrases for Ganymede, and Orlando declares himself for Rosalind and Rosalind impatiently insists that she does not want Phoebe. In this scene the repetition and helplessness of love is really on show. The constant niceties, wooing and the obsession that Silvius shows towards Phoebe bore her and lead to her feeling of resentment toward Silvius in return. Their relationship shows that unrequited love is an emotion that needs to be challenged constantly. It also shows human nature, no one really wants what’s right in front of them, the more unattainable, the more attractive, people want the dream.
Touchstone and Audrey scarcely have what you could say is a romantic relationship like Rosalind and Orlando. Touchstones intentions for him and Audrey are very simple and do not even include a legitimate marriage ceremony, but in the end turn out happily, ironically due to Jaques interference, which actually helps for once, ‘O Knowledge ill-habited worse than Jove in a thatched house’. The love between them is not as ‘charming’ as the others. Audrey is being taken advantage of somewhat and Touchstone, although admirable with regard to his treatment of Rosalind and Celia, is arrogant and a ‘show-off’ to the point of annoying. Touchstones ‘courtly’ manner of speech ‘manipulate’ Audrey into accepting a variety of insults, ‘to cast away honesty upon a foul slut, were to put meat into an unclean dish’ and she is fooled by Touchstones ‘fake marriage’ that Oliver was to carry out. Audrey is better suited to fellow countryman, William, who like her, has a simple honest look on life and who truly loves her, in contrary to Touchstone’s lesser ‘infatuation’ for her. This may be the most usual display of love as a man tries to seduce a passive and somewhat ‘weak’ woman. This example of love is certainly a variation from the more idealised forms that are portrayed in the by the other couples, it is based more on lust than romance and passionate love.
Celia and Oliver are the last couple to meet. Their love is rather improbable, not because they fall for each other at first sight, but as Shakespeare offers us very little to do with the pair, it just appears to be ‘stuck’ on the end as a way of marrying off all the main characters. However it does confirm Oliver’s repentance and Celia gets a happy ending for herself after being such a loyal companion to Rosalind. It seems unlikely that Celia would fall for a villain, even a repented one, but ‘As You Like It’ is a comedy and she does and I think that their marriage is needed if not just for the humorous ending of the play were there is a mass wedding.
As well as romantic and passionate loves, there are also family love relationships, such as those shared between Oliver and Orlando and Rosalind and Celia. Oliver and Orlando have been fighting each other emotionally all through the play and Shakespeare introduces us to this sibling rivalry right from the very first scene;
Oliver: [Raising his hand] ‘What, boy!’
Orlando: [Seizing his brother] 1Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.’
Oliver deprived Orlando ‘you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding me from all gentleman-like qualities’ and he ‘gained nothing under him but growth’, Oliver refuses to treat Orlando as his brother and treats him more as if he were a servant, they show no ‘brotherly’ love between them. Oliver even goes so far as to asks Charles, the court’s wrestler to, ‘use thy discretion: I had as life thou didst break his neck as his finger’, kill Orlando when they wrestle. However in the end, after it all, they still have compassion and love for each other. When Oliver comes to the Forest of Arden and is almost attacked by a lioness, blood conquers all, so to speak and although Orlando is hesitant at first, he risks his own life to save his brother, even after how he’s treated him all these years ‘Twice did he turn his back and purposed so, But kindness, nobler even than revenge, And nature, stronger than his just occasion, Made him give battle to the lioness.’ Oliver has now seen the error of his ways so to speak and a love forms between the brothers.
Rosalind and Celia also share a family bond, however they are close from the very beginning, more like sisters than cousins. They share an all absorbing, adolescent friendship, and a sisterly love and when Rosalind is banished Celia is devastated, their bond is so strong that she leaves the court with her- ‘Shall we be sundered, shall we part, sweet girl? No, it my father fin another heir!/ For by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, say what thou canst, ill go along with thee’ She talks of the great grief she would be in without her ‘sweet coz’ Rosalind, this is also an example of their extreme loyalty to each other, Celia is willing to leave everything, including her father. Their love is based on friendship and is the only relationship that does not break at some point during the play or become lowered by jealously or neglect, this could be due to the lack of sexual attraction to each other, which complicates a lot if not all of the passionate, romantic relationships in the play and being female they do not have masculine ego’s and male pride, which can also complicated matters like in Orlando’s and Oliver’s relationship at the beginning. Rosalind and Celia share the most uncomplicated and untainted love in the play.
The Forest of Arden represents nature and pastoral form, which Shakespeare also uses to present the theme of love. In the Forest we witness warmth and generosity in addition to ethics; however in the Court we observe deceit, prejudice and hostility. This is unusual as one would expect the hostility and such to come from the Forest and the sophistication to be at home in the Court. The rural setting allowed the urban courtiers to find freedom and if the courtiers had remained in the Court then Touchstone would of never met Audrey, Celia would never of fallen in love with Oliver and Orlando and Oliver would probably have never reconciled, Rosalind and Orlando may of never got together and married, the fact that the love prospers in the Forest of Arden leads me to believe that Shakespeare is making a connection between nature and love and that when people are bound by society they will not experience love in its rawest and most true form, and to do so properly one must be taken back to the basics, for instance, to the Forest of Arden.
The structure of the play is also extremely significant in the presentation of love, In the opening scenes which take place in the Court there is a lot of hostility particularly between Oliver and Orlando and many relationships are being broken up ‘most friendship is feigning’; Rosalind and her father Duke Senior, who is banished to the Forest of Arden, Celia and her father Duke Frederick, who banishes Rosalind also, and Celia goes with her, Rosalind and Orlando, who meet but are separated when Rosalind goes to the Forest, Oliver and Orlando, who have a broken relationship already, but are physically separated from each other. As we follow the characters to the Forest of Arden we witness the reformation of relationships; love is perused and new love is found, Orlando goes in search of his love Rosalind, Touchstone and Audrey begin a relationship, Silvius tries to win over Phoebe, Phoebe’s attraction to Rosalind’s guise, Ganymede, Touchstone’s lustful romance he finds with country girl, Audrey and William, the countryman’s love for Audrey and finally Celia and Oliver. Through structure Shakespeare manages to further connect nature and the prosper of love finding its way.
In Conclusion, Shakespeare manages to successfully present many different forms of love by using language, structure and form and by combining humour, conventional and unconventional behaviour and serious matters. In the final scenes Shakespeare purposely does not tying up all loose ends, I think this helps to show just how complex a human emotion such as love is; it cannot be given a simple one sentence definition, it comes in many different forms as I have gone through in this essay and that love is so full of contradiction that it cant be fully resolved, for instance, Silvius and Phoebe now have a marriage based on friendship regardless of how infatuated he is by her, Touchstone and Audrey have a relationship based on lust, which is sure to burn out eventually is it not? And even Orlando and Rosalind have a marriage that is a result of much deception. Rosalind’s epilogue is complex and unusual, but it ends the play well, we as an audience are left feeling that there maybe no such a notion as pure love. ‘My way is to conjure you/to like as much of this play as you can’ This line alone implies that love is down to our own view and interpretation of it, it allows you to see love ‘as you like it’, hence the title, and that such an intricate emotion is open to much interpretation.
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