"What does 'As You Like It' suggest about romantic love and marriage?" - An essay discussing the presentation of love and lovers in Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'.

The majority of characters in As You Like It end up as lovers, and the play ends with a quadruple wedding. On the path to this quadruple wedding, there are many dialogues between lovers, in which we are exposed to different opinions about what romantic love is, and what marriage means. As You Like It suggests that love occurs instantly, or it is not love; that love has no boundaries; that lovers are utterly obsessed …

…illogical, unpredictable and unexplainable. It is illogical that Silvius should go on loving the "proud disdainful shepherdess" Phebe, yet he does; it is illogical that love should happen at first glance, yet it does; it is illogical that love should be both a pain and a pleasure, but it is. In calling Cupid a "blind rascally boy" and love a "mere madness" Rosalind ably sums up the portrayal of love in As You Like It.