As You Like It

A pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare in which Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede and finds love in the Forest of Arden.

Rosalind: The daughter of Duke Senior in Shakespeare’s comedy, who disguises herself as the young man Ganymede. Her disguise and wit drive the play’s courtship plot.
Pastoral: A literary mode that idealizes rural life and uses shepherds or wilderness to examine society. The forest setting adapts pastoral conventions while exposing their limits.
William Shakespeare: An English playwright and poet whose works include tragedies, comedies, histories, and poems. He wrote the comedy, likely in the late 1590s.
All the world's a stage: A speech by Jaques comparing human life to a sequence of theatrical roles and ages. It gives the comedy its most famous image of life as performance.
Duke Frederick: The usurping ruler who banishes Rosalind and drives Duke Senior into exile. His coercive court contrasts with the relative freedom of Arden.
Orlando: The youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, who falls in love with Rosalind. His courtship of Rosalind becomes the play’s central romantic thread.
Cross-dressing in theatre: The theatrical practice of performers playing characters whose gender differs from their own. Rosalind’s disguise exploits the possibilities of an all-male Shakespearean stage.
Thomas Lodge: An English writer whose prose romance Rosalynde supplied a major source for Shakespeare’s play. Shakespeare adapted its plot, characters, and Forest of Arden setting.
Jaques: A melancholy lord accompanying Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden. His reflective wit complicates the forest’s apparent idyll.
Orlando's wrestling match: The opening contest in which Orlando defeats the wrestler Charles. Its courtly violence precedes the forest’s more playful tests of strength and love.

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SimileRelated: Its famous speech develops a comparison through metaphor, providing a useful contrast with simile.