As You Like It is one of those ingenious Shakespearean plays which uses the tool of disguise

to change the conventional notion of certain issues in society. In the play, the characters of
Rosalind and Celia disguise themselves and the whole consequence of comedy and wit
happens.
In Elizabethan times, the disguise was one of the tools of the stage to entertain.
Shakespeare uses this tool to add some comic effects while suggesting a serious issue behind
it at the same time. Rosalind is too witty for the male characters in the play.
When she leaves for the Forest of Arden with Celia, they disguise themselves for safety but
very soon we see that even when they’ve found Duke Senior, Orlando and others in the
forest, they don’t come out of disguise and this is when we learn the importance of the idea
of disguise in the play.
Rosalind chooses to be Ganymede which is the name of a Greek mythical character known
for its boyish beauty. It stands exactly opposite to what Rosalind actually is, a beautiful
girl.
Celia chooses to be Aliena which in Latin means stranger. It may mean that after knowing
the true face of her father due to his cruelty and leaving everything behind, she is a
stranger to her own self. The disguise allows them to do what normally they can’t as
women. It raises the question of the conventions of society regarding gender roles too. As
Ganymede, Rosalind tests the loyalty of Orlando thoroughly. She can enjoy freedom of
speech. She can express her feelings at first which as a woman is required from her to be
controlled.
The disguise of Rosalind and Aliena reminds us of the fact that gender roles are after all
not as rigid as designed by a patriarchal society. Gender roles are created because Rosalind
as a boy can do anything as good as any real man so the role of a woman is not born by
nature but created in society.

Hence the play deals with the theme of disguise extensively and suggests to us subtly of
something serious while using it to create comic effects every now and then.
Traditionally, a pastoral is a poem focusing on shepherds and rustic life; it first appeared
as a literary form in the third century C.E. The term itself is derived from pastor, the Latin
word for "shepherd." A pastoral may contain artificial or unnatural elements, such as
shepherd characters speaking with courtly eloquence or appearing in aristocratic dress.
This poetic convention evolved over centuries until many of its features were incorporated
into prose and drama. It was in these literary forms that pastoralism influenced English
literature from about 1550 to 1750, most often as pastoral romance, a model featuring
songs and characters with traditional pastoral aspects. Many of these elements can be seen
in the source for Shakespeare's play, Thomas Lodges popular pastoral novel Rosalynde,
written in 1590. But by the time Shakespeare adapted Lodge's tale into As You Like It
nearly a decade later, many pastoral themes were considered trite.
As a result, Shakespeare treated pastoralism ambiguously in the comedy. Without doubt,
the audience is meant to be intoxicated by the care-free atmosphere of the forest along with
the main characters, who are essentially given the freedom to concern themselves only with
romantic love. The image of Orlando dashing from tree to tree hanging up his poems is
perhaps the most emblematic of the play as a whole. Also, with the usurper Frederick as
the head of the dukedom and the magnanimous Duke Senior overseeing lite in the forest,
each setting is endowed with the characteristics of its figurehead; the connotations of the
forest are almost exclusively positive. In the speech in which Duke Senior introduces
Arden, he praises the "tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones,
and good in everything".
On the other hand, the audience is rarely given respite from Jaques, whose melancholy is
not really lessened by the forest, and Touchstone, who incessantly disparages both forest
life in Arden and forest dwellers. While some of Touchstone's comments are merely absurd
- such as portraying Corin as a sinner for not having been at court - their presence
nonetheless prevents a wholly idealistic tone from taking over. Perhaps most tellingly, the
comedy's resolution entails the entire company returning to court rather than remaining in
the forest. Overall, As You Like It can be viewed as either an endorsement or a satire of the
literary form of the pastoral and that duality is nowhere more evident than in the play's
title. Take your choice.
The world Pastoral comedy ostensibly refers to the life of the rural folk and their ways of
living, manners, and customs. Thus the word 'Pastoral' come to identify an ideal space
representing innocence, peace, philosophical idea. It is also a place of beauty peculiarly
suited for love and lovers and the creation of poetry. A Pastoral work of art is that type of
literary work which deals with the life of Shepherd Shepherdess and other country folks,
who lives in the lap of nature. Pastoral romances were highly popular in the Elizabethan
age and in As You Like It William Shakespeare has followed the same tradition. Because
the play is a Pastoral one, we have to consider the imaginary creation of the forest of
Arden. He created that forest namely the forest of Arden to provide the sincere Pastoral
taste of such a wonderful comedy. The harassed lovers troubled by kings Dukes and uncles
often left the life of court in literary traditions, took refuge in the woods, where they spend
their lives in the guide of Shepherds and Shepherdess wooing marriage each other.
 In As You Like It the main action takes place entirely in the natural atmosphere of the
forest of Arden. Among with some beautiful natural surroundings which include beasts,
birds, bees, snakes, hungry animals, and many others. We find many actors of the play, in
the course of action come to take shelter in the bosom of the forest of Arden, for their self -
enjoyment and also for necessity. In the entire play, almost all the major characters
including Oliver, Orlando, Rosalind, Cilia, Touchstone, Jacques, two Dukes have taken
shelter in the forest of Arden. All the major incidents also occurred in the ideal atmosphere
of Arden. There is a full Restoration of all the complexities that happen in Arden, and all
the characters finally get their due respect honor, and position on the natural blossom of
the Pastoral. Orlando proves his love for Rosalind in the forest, Oliver gets Cilia as his
mistress, both Rosalind and Cilia come out from their disguise, Duke senior got his last
honor and position, Touchstone marriage Audrey, Silvius got engaged to Phebe, etc.
The pastoral meeting of all major characters allows criticizing the court for its violence and
perversion. This criticism is founded its root on the blunder that 'the banished lords are
shepherds', this illusion in As You Like It breaks down toward us, when we realize that the
so-called shepherds are courtiers of the court and they pretend to criticize. Though
ostensibly the victims refer to the human beings living in the forest. It is a mark of
Shakespeare's mature comedy that he consent to this criticism of his ideal world in the very
centrum of it.
All this central incidence has taken place not in the court not under the royal favor but in
the ideal atmosphere of Pastoral. In this way, the creation of the forest of Arden proves the
most significant part of the play, for which the comedy As You Like It can be called one of
the most successful Pastoral comedy, ever produced in the British theatre.

What is Pastoralism?
By a pastoral comedy we mean a play in which the characters belong to the rustic class,
specially shepherds and shepherdesses. The situations of such plays are romantically
simple and pure and innocent, and the story usually delineates the peaceful and enviable
life of these figures who love and enjoy life in an ideal fashion. They have no cares and
burdens. They always get what they wish, and they end in a happy atmosphere of joy and
felicity. Such, in the main, are the elements of a pastoral story whether in fiction or in
drama.
This pastoral convention as it is often called, was first exploited and introduced by the
ancient Greek poet, Theocritus. As an offset to artificial existence which civilization
compelled the Greeks to lead, their poets and playwrights were led to compose imaginary
scenes in which men and women lived a natural and simple life as distinguished from the
complex and artificial life of over-civilized people. The convention became a popular
literary mode in the Renaissance.
Pastoral Elements in As You Like It
It is easy to see how As You Like It conforms to the conventions of the pastoral tradition.
We find, for example, a plentiful crop of rustic scenes and situations of shepherds and
shepherdesses, and all the other associations of a pastoral life. Even the principal figure of
the comedy, the heroine herself, takes to the life and manners of the shepherds in the major
portion of the play. Rosalind buys the estate of a shepherd in the Forest of Arden and lives
the life of simplicity and unsophisticated innocence. Besides, it is as a disguised shepherd
youth that Rosalind appears in her best wit and intelligence. Her mock wooing of Orlando,
her complications as a girl in the dress of a boy and, finally, her splendid resources of wit in
reducing all these complications to an easy and happy ending-all these prove that
Shakespeare exploited the pastoral convention in the service of comedy.
The Forest of Arden: Scene of Pastoral Bliss
Life in Arden is free from envies, jealousies and intrigues. It is one of simplicity and
naturalness-hard but sweet-different from the life of ‘painted pomp’ and flattery to which
Duke Senior makes a pointed reference in his famous speech on the sweetness of adversity.
Driven into exile by his usurping brother, the Duke goes to Arden to seek peace, freedom
and serenity in the midst of Nature’s sights and sounds. He comes here to
“Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in everything.”
But life here is not one of pure enjoyment. It has its sufferings, but Sorrows and sufferings
have a chastising quality. Winter and rough weather make life doubly hard. Food has to be
hunted wherever it can be found. But it has its compensations in the shape of peace beauty
and freedom.
Rosalind comes to it, having been banished by her uncle, Duke Frederick Celia follows her
out of sisterly affection and Touchstone follows the princesses on Celia’s request. Life at
the court was one of ‘slavery’ of too many restrictions and inhibitions but the Forest of
Arden seems to signify liberty, and not punishment. Orlando arrives in the Forest of Arden
with Adam, seeking refuge from the wickedness of his brother. Oliver comes here to seek
Orlando. Duke Frederick comes to it with a large army, moved by a ferocious idea; he
wants to catch hold of his brother and put him to the sword. Chance brings him to a holy
hermit whose influence makes him give up his ‘bloody intention’. He repents of his evil
ways, turns an anchorite, and restores the dukedom to its rightful owner. His reward is
spiritual bliss. Happiness comes to all who come to Arden, Thus Rosalind and Orlando get
each other. Chance stumbles Oliver into a lucky marriage, for we must say, he gets more
than he deserves. He also gains the goodwill of his brother, and achieves mental calm. As to
the Duke and his band, they are all ultimately restored to their original possessions. Even
Touchstone is no loser, for he gets Audrey, an ugly country wench, but he seems to get as
much pleasure out of “ugliness as others get from beauty. Happiness comes not only to
those who temporarily make Arden their home, but also to some natives through those
visitors. Thus Silvius succeeds in his passion for Phebe through the trick employed by
Rosalind.
Realism not Ignored
We may, however, note one thing while discussing As You Like It as a pastoral comedy.
The pastoral creation of the ancient writers usually verge on the improbable and almost
fantastic side. This results in the impression of artificiality in an endeavour to escape from
it. But in the consummate art of Shakespeare even the idealization which is inevitable in the
application of the pastoral convention is touched with probability and realism with the
result that his characters remain endearingly human Their motives may be romantic but
their passions and sentiments are human and worldly-wise. In other words, it may be said
that in Shakespeare’s hands the pastoral convention is humanized.
Shakespeare’s Pastoralism not Conventional
As You Like It came directly out of Lodge’s pastoral romance Rosalynde. It is pastoral in
its rustic scenes and situations, shepherds and shepherdesses, and other usual associations
of a pastoral life. The setting is pastoral. The Forest of Arden forms the real background of
the play, the greater part of the play being associated with forest scenes. It is true we
cannot forget the court, but the courtly life here merely sets off the pastoral life. All the
major characters of the play come to be associated with wood land life even though they do
not really belong to the woods. Shakespeare also takes care to introduce some real
shepherds and shepherdesses. Thus we have the Phebe-Silvius plot which enhances the
pastoral and woodland element. Even their love is the conventional love of the pastoral
Corin, Audrey, William, and Sir Oliver Martext, even though the part they play is mall and
unnecessary to the main theme are some truly rural characters in the play.
Apart from the setting and characters, the spirit of the true pastoral-carefree abandonment
and gaiety-animates all the major characters in spite of their apparent adversities. The
Duke has lost his dukedom, but, perfectly in tune with his surroundings, he manages to be
cheerful. However, the other side of the picture is never forgotten.
“This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Where we play in”
Touchstone is there to remind everyone of the inadequacy of this life. The truth of the
matter is that in the hands of Shakespeare pastoralism does not remain untouched by
reality. His broadening humanity refused to accept the artificialities of the pastoral
convention as such. His representation of the pastoral is thus rendered truthful. No life, as
Touchstone tells us, is absolutely good or bad, pleasant or miserable.
Curious Blend of Pastoralism and Burlesque of Pastoralism
The pastoral note is deepened by the introduction of Phebe, the fair but unkind
shepherdess; Silvius, the despairing lover; and Corin, the old shepherd, who soothes
Silvius. Phebe, the proud disdainful shepherdess, is an Arcadian coquette. She has all the
charms associated with a pastoral nymph, inky brows, black silky hair, bulging eye balls,
and cheeks of cream. She has a pretty gift of language. Her taunting speech to Silvius is a
charming piece of logic. The poetic shepherd youth, Silvius, is the victim of love sickness.
He is blind to all defects in the goddess of his devotion. He is not to be discouraged by
ridicule from loving her. He is made of sighs and tears, faith and service, passion and
adoration.
Old Corin is the shepherd whom Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone meet on their arrival in
Arden. The kindly old man makes the travellers welcome at the empty sheepcote. The
sylvan life of the forest is faithfully represented by Corin who confesses (Act III. Sc. II)
“Sir, I am a true labourer. I earn that I eat, get that I wear; owe man hate, envy no man’s
happiness; glad of other men’s good, content with my harm; and the greatest of my pride is to
see my cows grate and my lambs suck.”
Pitted against this pastoral life we have in As You Like It the genial humour of Rosalind,
the professional humour of Touchstone and the melancholy humour of Jaques. Rosalind is
pitted against the pastoral lovers-Silvius and Phebe. She ruthlessly brings home to Phebe
that an uglier woman than she (Phebe) does not exist in the world, and therefore she does
not like her : “Pray you, do not fall in love with me, I am false than vows made in wine,
besides, I like you not”. Touchstone likes to have a fling at the pastoral lovers-Silvius and
Phebe. But he goes a step further. He woos the rustic Audrey with folly, and with fcily he
frightens away his rival William. His marriage is a satire on the pastoral marriages in the
play because while others fall in love with beauty, he falls in love with ugliness He plays a
match with Corin of court-folly against pastoral wit. Finally, he delivers a lecture on the
theme of the pastoral life which is disliked by him.
Such is the satire on pastoral life that one finds in As You Like It. Jaques’ morbid humour
is turned upon every element of life around him-particularly pastoral life. He ridicules the
forest life when he points out that the Duke has been unwise in leaving behind the comforts
and luxuries of the court life and embracing the hardships and discomforts of the forest
life.
There is one man in the countryside who actually prefers the court. Finding himself in
Arden, Touchstone decides : “When I was at home, I was in a better place.” It is no doubt
important that he is a Fool, whose values may well be topsy-turvy. But in one word he
reminds us that there are such things as domestic comforts. And presently we find that the
old man whom society throws into the corner is likely in the “uncouth forest” to die of
hunger and exposure to the “bleak air.” There is clearly something to be said on the other
side; the fool may anatomize the wise man’s folly. And there is also Jaques to point out that
the natural life in Arden, where men usurp the forest from the deer and kill them in their
native dwelling place”, while deer, like men, are in distress abandoned by their friends, Is
as cruel and unnatural as the other. When Amiens sings under greenwood trees and turns
his merry note unto the sweet birds throat, inviting us to shun ambition and be pleased
with what we get, Jaques adds a further stanza to the song which suggests that to leave
your “wealth and ease” is the act of an ass or a fool. Most of us we suppose, have moods in
which we would certainly are with him, and it is a mark of Shakespeare’s mature comedy
that he permits this criticism of his ideal world in the very centre of it. The triumphal
procession after the killing of the deer, a symbolic ritual of the forester’s prowess, is
accompanied by a mocking song, while the slayer of the deer is given its horns to wear as a
somewhat ambiguous trophy.
It is Jaques, mostly, with the touch of the medieval buffoon in him, who contributes this
grotesque element of the songs and ritual of Arden. Like Touchstone he is not impressed by
Arden, but unlike Touchstone he does not prefer the court. Indeed, as we have seen, he is
able to show that they are very much alike, infected by the same diseases.
Audrey is a goatherd while William is a simple country clown. Audrey has none of the
beauty which usually belongs to shepherdesses in pastorals but she is honest and plain, and
this bucolic simplicity delivers her completely into the hands of Touchstone for whose sake
she rejects her lover William
Shakespeare’s William is singularly tongue-tied though he is “five and twenty” and thinks
he has a pretty wit“; the biggest of his eleven speeches is only seven words long. And his
partner is just as much of a contrast to the shepherdess of pastoral legend. She thanks the
gods she is not beautiful, does not even know the meaning of “poetical and her sheep, alas,
are goats.”
Shakespeare presents the conventional pastoral, and duly burlesques it. But with a surer
knowledge of life than many poets have had, he seems to suspect that the burlesque as well
as the convention may also miss the truth. Do shepherds really sleep under hedges? In
order to be unsophisticated, must they by stupid too? So among his varied array of
shepherds, Silvius and Ganymede and William, Shakespeare introduces one who knows
well of sheep, whose hands even get greasy with handling them. It does no matter that
Shakespeare got the hint for Corin from Croydon in Lodge, for Lodge found Corydon in
literature and for Corin Shakespeare went to life. Shakespeare’s Corin speaks at once of
grazing and shearing, and unkind master, and when he talks about the shepherd’s life he
shows that he knows the value of money and ewes that fat sheep need good pasture. His
greatest pride is to see his graze and his lambs suck. This is the note of his philosophy, and
it has its limitation; it is far from despicable and is splendidly anchored to fact. His attitude
to love is that of the fully sane man undisturbed by illusion. Being a man, he has been in
love and can still guess what it is like; but it is so long ago he has forgotten all the details.
How little he belongs to Arcadia may be discovered from Sydney, whose shepherd boy went
on piping “as though he should never be old.” In As You Like It perpetual youth is the
happiness of Silvius, and his fate.
In Corin Shakespeare provides us with a touchstone with which to test the pastoral.
Corin’s dialogue with the Touchstone of the court, dropped into the middle of the play,
adds to the conventional antithesis between courtier and countryman a glimpse of the real
thing. What emerges from the encounter of these two realists is that ewe and ram, like man
and woman, are put together and that though the courtier perfumes his body it sweats like
any other creature’s. In city of country, all ways of life are at bottom the same, and we
recognize a conclusion that Jaques, by a different route, has helped us to reach before.
Conclusion
Shakespeare builds up his ideal world and lets his idealists scorn the real one. But into their
midst he introduces people who mock their ideals and others who mock them. One must
not say that Shakespeare never judges, but one judgement is always being modified by
another. Opposite views may contradict one another, but of course they do not cancel out.
Instead they add up to an all embracing view far larger and more satisfying than any one
of them by itself.