Comment on the
important themes in As You Like It.
Shakespeare’s As
You Like It is a romantic comedy of love. The
theme of love in As You Like It is central to the play, and nearly
every scene makes reference to it in one way or another. However, there are
themes of the malleability of the human experience and city
life versus country life besides the theme of love and they are equally
important so far as the theme of the play is concerned. Let us discuss all the
major themes in the play:
The
Delights of Love
As
You Like It spoofs many of the conventions of poetry and
literature dealing with love, such as the idea that love is a disease that
brings suffering and torment to the lover, or the assumption that the male
lover is the slave or servant of his mistress. These ideas are central features
of the courtly love tradition, which greatly influenced European literature for
hundreds of years before Shakespeare’s time. In As You Like It, characters lament the
suffering caused by their love, but these laments are all unconvincing and
ridiculous. While Orlando’s metrically incompetent poems conform to the notion
that he should “live and die [Rosalind’s] slave,” these sentiments are roundly
ridiculed (III.ii.142). Even Silvius, the
untutored shepherd, assumes the role of the tortured lover, asking his beloved
Phoebe to notice “the wounds invisible / That love’s keen arrows make” (III.v.31–32).
But Silvius’s request for Phoebe’s attention implies that the enslaved lover
can loosen the chains of love and that all romantic wounds can be
healed—otherwise, his request for notice would be pointless. In general, As You Like It breaks with the courtly
love tradition by portraying love as a force for happiness and fulfillment and
ridicules those who revel in their own suffering....................................................................................................................
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