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Characters · 14
Adam
Adam is Orlando's devoted elderly servant in Shakespeare's As You Like It, serving as a moral compass for loyalty and selfless service in a play that largely focuses on romantic love and clever banter.
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Audrey
Audrey is a goatherd living in the Forest of Arden, and she serves as a comedic contrast to the play's more idealized romantic heroines.
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Celia
Celia is Duke Frederick's daughter and Rosalind's devoted cousin in Shakespeare's As You Like It, serving as both a comic foil and a moral compass throughout the play.
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Corin
Corin is an elderly shepherd in the Forest of Arden, offering a down-to-earth perspective of pastoral wisdom in Shakespeare's As You Like It.
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Duke Frederick
Duke Frederick is the main antagonist of the play and the younger brother of the exiled Duke Senior, having taken his brother's dukedom through treachery before the story begins.
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Duke Senior
Duke Senior is the rightful ruler of his unnamed dukedom, but he has been exiled to the Forest of Arden by his younger brother, Duke Frederick, who usurped his throne.
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Hymen
Hymen is the god of marriage featured in Act V, Scene 4 of As You Like It, overseeing the play's climactic quadruple wedding.
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Jaques
Jaques is a brooding lord in Duke Senior's exiled court in the Forest of Arden, serving as the play's main philosophical commentator and satirist.
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Oliver
Oliver de Boys is Orlando's older brother and the character who undergoes the most dramatic change in the play.
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Orlando
Orlando is the romantic hero of Shakespeare's As You Like It, a young nobleman whose journey takes him from oppression and exile to self-discovery and love.
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Phebe
Phebe is a proud and scornful shepherdess in the Forest of Arden whose brief but significant storyline pokes fun at the conventions of Petrarchan love poetry.
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Rosalind
Rosalind is the emotional and intellectual heart of As You Like It, Shakespeare's pastoral comedy.
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Silvius
Silvius is a young shepherd in the Forest of Arden, defined entirely by his unreciprocated and almost masochistic love for the disdainful shepherdess Phebe.
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Touchstone
Touchstone is the court jester who travels with Rosalind and Celia into the Forest of Arden, acting as the play's main source of humor and its sharpest satirist.
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Key quotes · 12
“It is a melancholy of mine own, compacted of many simples.”
This line is delivered by Jaques, the play's resident philosopher and melancholic character, in Act IV, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It.
Jaques · Act IV
“All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players.”
This famous speech is delivered by Jaques, the introspective courtier, in Act II, Scene 7 of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Jaques · Act II
“Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”
This clever line is delivered by Rosalind, who is disguised as the young man "Ganymede," to Orlando in the Forest of Arden.
Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) · Act IV, Scene 1
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
This line is delivered by Touchstone, the clever court jester who travels with Rosalind and Celia into the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare's romantic comedy As You Like It (Act V, Scene 1).
Touchstone · Act V
“I would not be cured, youth.”
This line is delivered by Orlando in Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, during a playful moment with Rosalind, who is disguised as the young man "Ganymede," in the Forest of Arden.
Orlando · Act III, Scene ii
“Can one desire too much of a good thing?”
This line is delivered by Rosalind, who is disguised as the young man "Ganymede," in Act IV, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's romantic comedy As You Like It.
Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) · Act IV
“Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.”
This line is delivered by Rosalind — who is disguised as the young man "Ganymede" — to Celia (her cousin and closest friend) in Act III, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's comedic play As You Like It.
Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) · Act III
“The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly.”
This line is delivered by Touchstone, the clever court jester, in Act I, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Touchstone · Act I
“Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical.”
This line is spoken by Audrey, a straightforward country goatherd, to Touchstone, the clever court jester, in Act III, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Audrey · Act III
“We that are true lovers run into strange capers.”
This line is delivered by Touchstone, the clever court jester, to Corin, a straightforward shepherd, in Act II, Scene 4 of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Touchstone · Act II
“I like this place, / And willingly could waste my time in it.”
This line is spoken by Orlando in Act II, Scene iv of Shakespeare's romantic comedy As You Like It.
Orlando · Act II
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, / Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
This famous speech is delivered by Duke Senior, the rightful ruler who has been overthrown by his brother Duke Frederick and now lives in exile in the Forest of Arden with a group of loyal followers.
Duke Senior · Act II, Scene 1
Symbols · 5
Pastoral Life and the Shepherd's World
In As You Like It, the Forest of Arden represents freedom, simplicity, and moral clarity, contrasting sharply with the corruption found in court life.
Rosalind's Disguise as Ganymede
In As You Like It, Rosalind's disguise as "Ganymede" highlights the freeing nature of identity, gender, and social power.
The Forest of Arden
In As You Like It, the Forest of Arden symbolizes freedom, transformation, and the healing qualities of nature.
The Seven Ages of Man
In As You Like It, the Seven Ages of Man — spoken by the melancholic Jaques in Act II, Scene vii — illustrates the inevitability of human impermanence and the performative nature of life.
The Wrestling Match
In As You Like It, the wrestling match between Orlando and Charles symbolizes the conflict between corrupt power and natural virtue.
Literary devices · 8
Irony
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses irony as a key structural element, especially through Rosalind's disguise as "Ganymede."
Personification
In As You Like It, Shakespeare gives abstract forces and the natural world a human touch to enhance the play's exploration of exile, time, and fortune.
Allusion
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses allusion to add layers of classical and biblical meaning to the comedy's pastoral setting.
Prose Poem
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses stretches of elevated prose that resemble prose-poems, creating a fluid boundary between verse and non-verse for a lyrical impact.
Pun
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses puns as the main source of wit, social commentary, and character insight.
Dramatic Monologue
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses the dramatic monologue most effectively through Jaques, whose speeches give the impression of a mind speaking openly to a somewhat reluctant audience.
Metaphor
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses extended metaphor as a key tool for exploring philosophical ideas, especially evident in Jaques's famous speech that likens human life to a theatrical performance: "All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players."
Juxtaposition
In As You Like It, Shakespeare uses juxtaposition as a key structural and thematic tool, contrasting different worlds, characters, and philosophies to give each a clearer definition through their differences.