As You Like It | Gender Issues in As You Like It

A discussion of the theme of gender in the play in the context of Elizabethan notions of what it means to be a male or female.

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...

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