Love in "As You Like it" by William Shakespeare.

In the timeless masterpiece "As You Like It," William Shakespeare covers a wide range of serious topics, while still keeping a light-hearted, comedic tone about the majority of the play. One topic that is obviously touched upon in the play is the major theme of different faces of love. In his depiction of the four couples (Orlando and Rosalind, Silvius and Phebe, Oliver and Celia, and Touchstone and Audrey) Shakespeare offers four differing perspectives on …

…couples. Three of the marriages at the end of the play promise to be happy ones, yet the fourth is unlikely to last, and Jaques predicts before he leaves that Touchstone's "loving voyage is but two months victuall'd." (153) This is Shakespeare's way to show that only true love, no matter how it is achieved, will last and stand the test of time. Desire and lust are nothing that will last forever, but true love will.