“Love is many things: the protective love of a mother for her child, the passion of a couple newly in love, the deep love of long-term companions and the divine love of God,” (Anderson page one). Love happens to be the greatest gift that one can ever hope to give or receive. With love, one has the ability to feel invincible, like one can do or achieve anything, as long as they have love by their side.
Love also can give one a sense of comfort and belonging in the world.When one completely gives themselves to another, and when they love their significant other no matter how many flaws they possess, that too is love indeed. Love has to do with tolerance, sincerity, respect and loyalty towards one another. In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, love is a major occurring theme. There are different forms of love between the characters, some variations of love more passionate as opposed to others. Love is something that can be genuine, that can be mistaken for infatuation, and something that can be unrequited.
True, genuine love occurs between Rosalind and Orlando in Shakespeare’s As You Like It.When Rosalind first encounters Orlando at his wrestling match with Charles, she is instantly won over by his good looks and masculinity. The two then become smitten during this encounter, or in other words, fall in love at first sight. Orlando professes his deep, sincere love for Rosalind by carving their names on trees in the Forest of Arden, and even leaving poems about her there as well. Orlando then announces to Rosalind, as Ganymede, that he is in love with Rosalind.
Orlando, thereafter, declares that, “then, in my own person, I die,” (4. 3. 98).This means that if Rosalind does not love Orlando back, he would rather die, for he is deeply in love with Rosalind and cannot envision a life without her. At the end of the play, Orlando and Rosalind finally get married.
Orlando and Rosalind’s relationship shows that true love does indeed exist. The relationship between Touchstone and Audrey in the play is quite the opposite of Orlando and Rosalind’s relationship, which is based upon true, affectionate feelings for one another. Touchstone and Audrey act as a foil to the characters of Orlando and Rosalind.The love between Touchstone and Audrey is in fact not true love, but rather infatuation instead. Touchstone and Audrey are physically attracted to one another as opposed to being attracted to each other on a mental or emotional level. Touchstone only wishes to marry Audrey so that if he were to partake in sexual relations with her, he would not be looked down upon for not being married.
Touchstone even mentions, “For he is not like to marry me well, and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife,” (3. 3. 90-94).This shows that Touchstone only wants Sir Oliver Martext to marry the two of them because he is not likely to marry them properly and it would give him a better excuse for him to leave Audrey later on, if he becomes uninterested.
The relationship between Touchstone and Audrey show that the feeling they feel between each other is merely lust, and nothing more. The relationship between Silvius and Phoebe is one-sided on Silvius’s part. He is madly in love with Phoebe, a shepherdess. Silvius constantly tries to make advances towards Phoebe, but she never returns the affection he shows towards her.Phoebe even mocks Silvius due to the fact that she does not feel anything towards him, much to his chagrin.
Phoebe ultimately falls in love with Ganymede as well, after he criticizes her for acting incredibly callous towards Silvius. Phoebe even sends Silvius to deliver a letter to Ganymede, declaring her love for him. Silvius does this because he believes that Phoebe will love him even more if he does so. This love is also unrequited, because Ganymede does not love Phoebe because she is a woman, and because Ganymede is in love with Orlando. Ganymede tricks Phoebe into marrying Silvius by the end of the play.Silvius is ecstatic about the arrangement, whereas Phoebe is indifferent to the whole ordeal since she only agreed to marry Silvius since she found out that Ganymede was truly a woman, and therefore there was no use in loving Ganymede.
Love is something that can be genuine, that can be mistaken for infatuation, and something that can be unrequited. Having love for another is a simply euphoric feeling. There are various perceptions of love. As shown in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, there is no true definition of love; it is indescribable.
People perceive it in whichever way they choose to.It is up to them to carry out the feeling of love and to let it be known to others how love feels so that they can feel it too, for it is a magical, wonderful feeling. One should always remember that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails,” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
