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{\LARGE {\it As You Like It}: 
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Shakespeare's Study in Romantic Relationships}
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{\Large 9.00 Paper IV}
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{\large Juliet C. Bourne 
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December 7, 1989}
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\sspace\noindent
{\small\narrower\it ``If we pay attention to all the discussion among
Shakespeare's lovers of the importance of seeing and seeming, then we
must admit that Shakespeare presents us with a phenomenology of
desire.'' (MacCary~2)\par}
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Studying different kinds of romantic relationships is best achieved
through reading literature, both new and old. Shakespeare especially
is a good source of insightful commentary on the state of romantic
relationships. {\it Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and As You
Like It} are all good studies in the explanations of romantic
relationships. Much lighter than the other three, {\it As You Like It}
is a source of diverse examples of romantic attachments. One can study
the many relationships in the play, testing and applying the different
theories of romantic attachment. These theories address the questions
``Why do people develop romantic attachments?'' and ``Why do people
develop attachments to the people that they do?''

Theories of proximity or familiarity, the halo effect, and social
exchange are the most popular of the theories of romantic
relationships.  The theory of proximity states that people are most
likely to become romantically attached to people who live near them or
who they are the most familiar with. This theory could be used to
explain the relationship between Silvius and Phebe to some extent. The
halo effect theory asserts that people tend to extend the fact that
someone is attractive to the assumption that the {\it whole} person is
desirable. In some ways, Phebe's attraction to Ganymede (Rosalind)
might be explained by this theory. The theory of social exchange
models romantic relationships after economic principles. The idea is
that each person places a certain value on himself and that people do
not feel that they can ``buy'' (in this case, have a relationship
with) another person that they perceive as having more value than
themselves. Besides these three theories, there is also the mirror
theory of romantic relationships. This states that people seek their
own image in their partners. Also, as the antithesis to this theory,
some believe that people seek the opposite of themselves in their
partners.  All of these theories play some part in the complex
relationships, of which there are several, in Shakespeare's comedy
{\it As You Like It}.

Starting with the relationship between Silvius and Phebe, two country
people, we find that their relationship is not as simple as one would
expect it to be. Silvius is completely devoted to Phebe, despite her
scorn and disdain for him. Silvius' love can be accounted for in a
couple of ways. First of all, we must account for the fact that
Silvius fell in love with Phebe in the first place.  This is probably
best explained by the proximity theory. Gleitman states, ``What are
the factors that make people like -- let alone love -- one another.
Some of them are surprisingly simple. One of the most important
factors is sheer physical proximity. By now, dozens of studies have
documented the fact that if you want to predict who makes friends with
whom, the main thing to ask is who is nearby'' and ``What holds for
friendship also holds for mate selection. The statistics are rather
impressive.'' (Gleitman~383) Since Phebe is described as being plain,
sheer physical attractiveness could not explain Silvius' love.
Indeed, Silvius believes that Phebe is beautiful, but that is more of
an effect of Silvius being in love with her than of anything else.
When in love, people tend to think only the best of their partner.
Thus, proximity mainly explains Silvius' love for Phebe. Now, the
reason why Silvius continues to love Phebe despite her disdain, and
also why Phebe {\it is} disdainful toward her loving suitor, is a bit
more complicated than the proximity theory. It could best be explained
by the social exchange theory. Silvius' constant overt adoration of
Phebe gives her an inflated sense of her worth. Indeed, ``Silvius sees
in Phebe beauty which he puts there, and this makes Phebe overestimate
herself.'' (MacCary~85) In the language of the social exchange theory,
Silvius' love makes Phebe think that she has more value than Silvius
and thus she is disdainful of him. In turn, Silvius underestimates his
own worth and therefore submits to Phebe's scorn, while still trying
to ``attain'' her. Thus, the relationship between Silvius and Phebe is
a good example of how different theories about romantic relationships
interact to explain a relationship. In this case, the proximity theory
and the social exchange theory combine to create a somewhat complex
relationship.

To explain the reasons why Phebe is attracted to Rosalind disguised as
Ganymede, one must look at more Freudian-like theories than the ones
just discussed. The theory that particularly pertains to Phebe's
attraction to Ganymede is the theory of seeking the mirror image of
oneself in another person.

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{\sspace\narrower\noindent [Phebe] imagines that she has at last found
the man for whom she has been waiting; not someone sweet and eager to
do her bidding, but someone hard to get and hard to control -- like
her. In a way Phebe falls in love with herself: she projects her
traits onto Ganymede and falls in love with them. (Westlund~85)\par}
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Yet another possible explanation is the halo effect, where one is
attractive and thus `goodness' is generally attributed to him or her
by others.  This is plausible in this situation since Phebe considers
Ganymede to be a `pretty youth':

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{\sspace\narrower\noindent Phebe suddenly becomes unaccountably
captivated by the superbly disguised Rosalind; the young ``man''
before her is commanding and disarmingly magnetic. ... He {\it is}
attractive, she thinks, and thus her feelings vacillate between being
utterly undone by this ``pretty youth'' and between being angry at
him, the ``peevish boy,'' for his sharp tongue. (Smith~35)\par}
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Shortly thereafter Phebe writes a love letter to Ganymede, showing
that Ganymede's `prettiness' overcame his `peevishness' in Phebe's
eyes.  Thus it seems that, since Ganymede is `attractive', Phebe is
attributing to him general goodness, worthy of the love that she will
not bestow on Silvius. The two possible explanations, then, of Phebe's
love for Ganymede are: one, that Phebe sees herself in Ganymede's
authoritative manner and falls in love with this mirror image; and
two, that Phebe is affected by the halo effect where she considers
Ganymede attractive and thus she attributes ``goodness'' to him.  A
complete explanation would include a bit from each of these theories.

Probably the easiest and the hardest relationships to explain in {\it
As You Like It} are those of Touchstone and Audrey, and Oliver and
Celia, respectively. In Touchstone's and Audrey's relationship, there
is little explanation other than physical attraction. Neither of them
(supposedly) are very smart. Touchstone is a `fool' and Audrey is an
unassuming and dull-witted country `wench' who does not understand
Touchstone's verbal wit. Thus, ``For Touchstone, then, love is
instinctual: one experiences it because one is part of nature, not
because one just happens to meet the one woman in the world whom one
is meant to love.'' (MacCary~172) Touchstone himself seems to realize
this when he says ``As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb,
and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires, and as pigeons
bill, so wedlock would be nibbling.'' (III.iii.ll~71-73) Explaining
the sudden love between Oliver and Celia, who literally fall in love
at first sight, is more complicated. We are not given very much
information about their relationship other than that they fell in love
instantly. Yet, like the other relationships discussed, their
relationship is representative, in this case of all of the
unexplainable, completely illogical relationships that {\it do} occur
in life.

Now we come to the most complicated, or at least the most talked
about, relationship in the play, that of Rosalind and Orlando. ``One
of the central problems of the play is the complexity of that
relationship between a seemingly simple man and a very sophisticated
lady.'' (MacCary~175) Like Celia and Oliver, they too fall in love at
first sight. But the subsequent events in the Forest Arden deepens and
explains their relationship more. So what begins as sheer physical
attraction develops into a very complex relationship. MacCary has a
theory about the development of such relationships in Shakespeare's
comedies:

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{\sspace\narrower What do lovers learn to look for in their beloved?
Shakespeare's answer is clear: the mirror images of themselves. He
carefully takes his young men through four stages of object-choice:
first, they love themselves (or seek themselves); then, they love
mirror images of themselves in twins or friends; after that they love
those same images in transvestized young women; finally they learn to
love young women in all their specific, unique, and complex virtues.
(MacCary~5)\par}
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Although {\it As You Like It} does not follow this theory exactly, it
comes close. In a sense Orlando does seek himself through defying his
older brother Oliver and wrestling Charles despite great risk of
personal injury. He then falls in love with Rosalind, who in some ways
mirrors himself in that she also defies and fights a person capable of
doing her harm (in this case, her uncle Duke Frederick).  Then, of
course, Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede and meets Orlando in
the Forest Arden. Their first meeting in the forest ``makes us see how
alive [Rosalind] is to human nature in all its variety and
particularity. This vitality makes her -- as Ganymede -- appealing to
Orlando.'' (Westlund~81) From this and subsequent conversations
between Orlando and Ganymede we see ``clearly [that] Orlando falls in
love with Rosalind as Ganymede'' (MacCary~175), and so ``it is
Rosalind-Ganymede that Orlando now loves, not simply Rosalind, and
that love is deeper because it involves an image of himself.''
(MacCary~176) An explanation for why Orlando falls in love with
Rosalind has been given, but not an explanation of why Rosalind falls
in love with Orlando. This side of the relationship seems to involve
the theory that, in its simplest form, states that ``Opposites
attract.'' Whereas Rosalind is a very intelligent and nimble-witted
young lady, Orlando is a fairly simple young man. The theory goes that
Rosalind ``falls more deeply in love with [Orlando], but that is
clearly because of his simplicity.'' (MacCary~175) Possibly another
factor in Rosalind's love for Orlando is familiarity, since Orlando's
father was a good friend of Rosalind's father. Rosalind first explains
her love for Orlando in this fashion, that since her father loved
Orlando's father, it is only natural that she love Orlando. Although
she doesn't remember meeting Orlando before, Rosalind is affected by
the fact that her father and his father were friends, and therefore
she feels comfortable in loving him.

In general, the relationship between Orlando and Rosalind seems to be
very complex. Many of the theories about romantic attachments must be
used to explain the different facets of their relationship. There are
bits of physical attraction, mirror theory, opposites attract,
familiarity, and love at first sight all thrown into together to form
their romantic relationship. Despite the seemingly adhoc theoretical
explanations for their relationship, it is a fairly stable and healthy
relationship. Westlund comments that Rosalind and Orlando ``feel mild
ambivalence: not simultaneous love and hate, but mixed ideas and
attitudes about what the beloved is really like, and what love
consists of. Their aplomb indicates a secure relation to inner and
external reality; they know whom they love and who loves them.''
(Westlund~83) 

As it can be seen, {\it As You Like It} provides several good, diverse
examples of romantic relationships. By analyzing these relationships
with theories such as proximity, halo effect, social exchange,
mirror-image, and the attraction of opposites, a fairly comprehensive
study of romantic relationships can be done. Naturally, all of the
possible types of romantic attachments are represented in this single
play, but it shows the diversity of romantic relationships: the
one-sided relationship of Silvius and Phebe, the strange relationship
between Phebe and Rosalind-Ganymede, the instinctual relationship
between Touchstone and Audrey, the mysterious relationship between
Celia and Oliver, and finally the complex and realistic relationship
between Rosalind and Orlando. A study of more of Shakespeare's
comedies will reveal more representative romantic relationships that
can be explained by theories similar to the ones discussed previously.
In general, Shakespeare's comedies are ``about the beginnings of
desire in the search for the self in mirror-images of the self and the
gradual acceptance of difference and independence in the other.''
(MacCary~12) Since Shakespeare's comedies reflect the real world to
the most extent, the relationships that develop in them are realistic
and can teach us something about human romantic relationships.

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{\sspace\noindent\narrower\it ``As the title suggests, everyone's
desires are fulfilled, even Phebe's, though she has taken only the
first step in love, from derision to doting, and still must learn to
respond to Silvius' love for her, to see herself in his eyes.''
(MacCary~172) 

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{\bf Bibliography}
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Gleitman, Henry. {\it Psychology}, second edition. New York:
W.~W.~Norton and Company, 1986.

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MacCary, W. Thomas. {\it Friends and Lovers}. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1985.

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Smith, Tom. {\it Cliffs Notes on Shakespeare's} As You Like It.
Lincoln, Nebraska: Cliffs Notes, Inc., 1981.

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Westlund, Joseph. {\it Shakespeare's Reparative Comedies}. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1984.

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