As You Like It themes

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

Resource summary

	Created by alexford96 over 11 years ago