# Scene II explained — As You Like It

> Chapter companion for As You Like It by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

Orlando hangs love poems on trees, then meets Rosalind disguised as Ganymede. She playfully offers to cure him of love, and they agree to a wooing game. Touchstone and Corin debate court versus country life. Jaques and Orlando exchange witty insults.

## Themes in this chapter

### Disguise and Deception

Rosalind as Ganymede deceives Orlando, initiating a therapeutic game.

### Court vs. Country

Touchstone and Corin debate the merits of courtly versus pastoral life.

### Love and Marriage

Orlando's poetic devotion and Rosalind's playful critique of love's madness.

## Character check-ins

### Orlando

Hangs verses on trees, meets Ganymede, agrees to woo him as Rosalind.

### Rosalind

Disguised as Ganymede, she teases Orlando and proposes to cure his love.

### Touchstone

Debates with Corin about court vs. country life.

### Corin

Defends the shepherd's life against Touchstone's mockery.

### Jaques

Exchanges barbs with Orlando, calls him 'Signior Love'.

### Celia

Present as Aliena, addressed by Rosalind as 'sister'.

## Key lines

> Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do

Love is just a form of insanity that should be treated like madness.

_Rosalind dismisses romantic love as a curable lunacy._

> those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court

Courtly manners look foolish in the countryside, and rustic ways seem absurd at court.

_Corin points out the relativity of social customs._

> Time travels in divers paces with divers persons

Time moves at different speeds for different people.

_Rosalind explains how subjective time feels depending on one's situation._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-ii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/as_you_like_it_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters