As You Like It: Gender Issues in As You Like It

When Rosalind decides to cross dress as the shepherd Ganymede in Act I, scene 3 of As You Like It, she highlights the conceptions of gender as a central theme of the play. While As You Like It presents common Elizabethan notions of what it means to be male and female, it also makes an important point about the intelligence and capability of women by portraying clever and powerful girls who are capable of holding their own in a man's world. By giving these women power and intelligence, Shakespeare reminds us that although his contemporaries (and many of our contemporaries as well) assume that men and women fulfill certain stereotypes, both genders are more than capable of superseding those limitations in order to attain their goals.

As You Like It first establishes what it means to be male in Elizabethan society. Orlando criticizes his brother Oliver for raising him improperly because he has not educated him so that he can be a gentleman. While Orlando, as Oliver notes, is learned without an education, it is expected that Orlando, as the son of a nobleman, will be educated because he is male. We also learn in the first scene that Orlando is one of the heroes of the play because he is noble, good looking, and strong (qualities which make Oliver, one of the villains, hate him). Rosalind also notes that he is of good character because he has inherited his father's spirit. Later on in the play, Orlando writes several love poems and remains steadfast in his love despite Ganymede's "attempts" at driving him away from it. Orlando's example of what it means to be male is the standard by which all of the other males (including Rosalind when she pretends to be Ganymede) will be measured.

While the definition of male in the play is fairly straightforward, the idea of what it means to be a woman is far more problematic. The first time female characters appear in the play is in the second scene, where we find two princesses making fun of fortune and nature. Both Celia and Rosalind are portrayed as both intelligent and beautiful, a rare combination that breaks from the "dumb female" stereotype. From their first exchange, it is clear that either character could easily outwit any male in the play, especially in terms of conversation, as they manage to quickly subdue Touchstone. It is also clear that while Celia is intelligent, Rosalind is more so. However, since both are female, their actions are limited, and they have no ability to act on their intelligence while they are in court.

The situation changes, however, when Rosalind is banished by Duke Frederick. Although Celia is the taller of the two girls, Rosalind insists that she will play the man. The first thing she thinks of to do in order to become a man is to arm herself, since weapons are "manly" and will cover up the "womanly" fear in her heart of being in the forest. She also cannot cry once she gets there, even though she is about to, and must instead comfort the "weaker vessel" Celia like a good brother. However, pretending to be a male will allow Rosalind to actually act on the intelligence with which she has been gifted, and she will begin to manipulate other characters in the play because of her new gender status.

Rosalind's manipulative acts as Ganymede help to bring the play to a happy conclusion. Her first act is to offer to "counsel" Orlando out of his love for her. Rosalind proposes to do this by fulfilling all of the stereotypes associated with women in romantic relationships. In Act III, scene 2, she tells Orlando that she will "grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing and/liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles; for every passion something/and for no passion truly anything" (ll. 385-388). Ganymede will act like this because women in love are supposed to be fickle and flighty. By portraying women in their most stereotypical (and unrealistic) light, Rosalind pretends that she will cure Orlando despite the fact that she really has no intention of doing so. Her main reason for these sessions is to, of course, be near Orlando and uncover just how much he loves her before she risks herself by revealing her identity to him.

Rosalind goes on to further expose the fallacies of the stereotypes of women in Act IV, scene 1. After pointing out that both men and women are like spring when they woo and winter when they wed (a metaphor that only fits bad relationships), Rosalind proceeds to completely denounce women. First, she accuses women of acting before thinking, and then claims that women are more giddy (silly) in their desires than a monkey. Women, according to Rosalind, will also use their wit to blame their husbands for all of their own faults, and will be unreasonably emotional at the most inappropriate times. However, neither Orlando nor the audience is meant to believe these accusations. If all of these were true, then Rosalind would not be able to control herself and play Ganymede so successfully. She would not be able to deceive her father or Orlando, and also would not be able to manipulate Silvius and Phebe into marrying each other at the end of the play. So although a female character proposes this ideas, we are clearly not meant to really believe that women are quite so ridiculous, as Celia immediately reminds us with her outburst that Rosalind has "misused" the female gender by making these completely false claims. Celia also goes so far as to say that Rosalind has played a male too long because she is forgetting what women are really like. Celia's intelligent observations, made by a female who clearly does not conform to the stereotypes put forth by Rosalind in her conversations with Orlando, demonstrate a woman who is definitely as wise as any man.

Rosalind's other major act of manipulation relates to the relationship between Silvius and Phebe. Silvius, like Orlando, is very much in love, but unlike Orlando, is completely consumed by it. He is willing to make a complete fool of himself for Phebe, and constantly pines for her despite the fact that she is both proud and extremely disdainful of his affections. Because of she is so intelligent, Rosalind quickly perceives that Silvius loves Phebe because she is so abusive to him, and Phebe will fall in love with her as Ganymede if she is mean to Phebe as well. This astute observation helps Rosalind to help Silvius by making Phebe promise to marry Silvius if she refuses to accept Ganymede. It should also be noted here that Phebe, despite her pride, does not fulfill all of the female stereotypes, either. Although she spurns Silvius and refuses to give up on her love for Ganymede until the final scene, she does fulfill her word and marry Silvius, and even promises to unite her love to that of Silvius when she marries him.

Despite being more than capable of solving the problems of the play as a woman, Rosalind would not have been able to accomplish her successes in either of these situations (Silvius/Phebe and Orlando) had she not been dressed as a man. Not only would Orlando have recognized her if she appeared as a female, but he also would have been much less likely to confess his feelings to Rosalind directly if she had not been dressed as Ganymede. Phebe would not have been able to be influence by Rosalind if she had not fallen in love with Ganymede, rendering Rosalind incapable of assisting Silvius in his pursuit of her. The appearance of being male gives Rosalind the authority to work all of these situations into a successful conclusion. This is the reason why Rosalind must appear one last time as Ganymede in the final scene—in order to cement the bargains she makes through her power as a man. Once Rosalind returns to her true identity, she must accept the power of her father and of her husband over her, but it is clear that she is still the most intelligent and most able character in the play. This serves as a reminder to us that although we make certain assumptions about people's abilities based on their gender, our assumptions may not always be the case.