As You Like It Theme of Contrasting Regions

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy. In the simplest sense, this is because it takes place in the forest, removed from the courtly home of most of the play’s characters. Yet the interaction between court and country people in the play provides some contrasts. Courtly people have to worry about treachery, and country people about snakes, but in the end, isn’t it the same thing? Similarly, don’t all characters, whether pastoral or courtly, have to make the same choice: to be content or unhappy? The play ruminates on the issues of being content in your environment. Is social etiquette better than natural ease? The surface meaning of the country/court divide is simply about location, but it raises the question of where people are most comfortable and free to be themselves. The difference between court and country is just a tool to get the reader thinking about the self you put on, and the self you actually are.

1. The Forest of Arden has its fair share of hard knocks. Everyone is always talking about how cold it is, there are snakes and lionesses, and starvation seems to be a common hobby. Is it likely that this is any kind of Eden-like place?
2. The characters that have made their home in Arden with Duke Senior seem to follow his lead: they are grateful to be out of the treacherous court and in the natural forest. Why, then, do they all choose to go back at the end of the play?
3. Is Arden a magical place, following the stereotype of many pastoral plays? Does anything happen in the forest that couldn’t possibly have happened outside of the forest world?

Rosalind’s transition to Ganymede in the Forest of Arden is the defining change that allows her to take action in the play and in her own life. In the new environment of the forest, she is free from the constraints of her old identity as a daughter, a noble, and a woman.

The visiting courtiers romanticize Arden in a way that can be expected, given that they are an occupying force that has been exiled from its own home. All of their magical feelings about the special bits of nature and freedom are self-consoling attempts to make do with this new and difficult life. That is why, as soon as they have the chance, they all leave again for the court.