Joseph Rosenblum, in his A Reader’s Guide to Shakespeare, makes the following remarks:
- The Pastoral Comedies of Classical Roman times describe “lost happiness.”
- In the Pastoral, the mythic lost world is set in a simple and rural environment. It presents an image of all things desirable to honest people. The court is corrupt, an unnatural home of the wicked and ambitious, a world of artifice.
- The Two Worlds Theme: Artifice and Nature.
- Love is part of the natural world.
- The Love Pairings have purpose:
- Rosalind-Orlando – refined love: Rosalind recognizes silliness of it but still falls victim to it.
- Touchstone-Audrey – earthly love, physical passion, lust.
- Phebe-Silvius – unrequited love, fickle mistress.
- Wicked men are converted in the forest. The forest has power to convert: (a) Oliver, (b) Duke Frederick.
- The forest is a cleansing experience, a place to renew honesty and virtue.
