Shakespeare demonstrates love can make people do foolish things
The artifice of 'courtly romance' is constantly mocked
The play steadily works its way towards four marriages
numerous cuckold jokes that suggest all men are
destined to be cheated on by unfaithful wives
Foolishness and folly
The character that mocks the most
is a 'licensed' fool, Touchstone
It's acknowledged that foolishness
and folly makes us human
Gender
By dressing as Ganymede, Rosalind
challenges what it means to be a man or woman
This is confused further as in
Shakespeare's day it would've been a
boy playing a girl playing a boy
Family
Family treachery and betrayal drives
the play's action and reminds us there
cannot always be loyalty
explores the social problems that can
arise when oldest sons inherit all of
their fathers' titles
Transformation
Some characters literally transform
themselves by cross-dressing, while others
shrug off their city-slicker identities and live as
rustic country-types
these "conversions" are sudden and
seemingly miraculous, as is the case with
Duke Frederick and Oliver
this theme allows Shakespeare to explore the
nature of the theater, which requires actors to
transform themselves on an ever-changing stage