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The main themes of "As You Like It" are the pastoral ideal and the ideal of romantic love. Forest of Aden is the primary setting where these themes develop. Nature serves as a refuge from society where we can find solutions to injustice and unhappiness. This play is a comedy and thus has a happy ending but it is not a fairy tail. Shakespeare highlights the difference between reality and illusion. Rosalind embodies the sensibility, …

…a courtly lovesickness. Rosalind outshines everyone else in the play with her intelligence, wit and depth of feeling. Her humanity and sense of fun make her the ideal romantic heroine. She seems to be centuries ahead of her time. She is a woman who is absolutely the master of her own destiny and she remains in control most of the time. Shakespeare has created an almost ideal heroine who brings the play to its conclusion.