As You Like It surprised me most with its blatant dealing with sexuality and sexual identity. Shakespeare dealt with a great deal of issues here that I never would have expected to see brought up here. This play was not a typical romantic comedy. This is perhaps what I admire most about him as a playwright, his ability to push the boundaries and limits of his time.
             There are clearly a great deal of homosexual overtones between almost all the characters, men and women alike. For example, it can be evidenced in the relationship between Rosalind and Celia. Charles says, "never two ladies loved as they do". At another point Celia tells Rosalind, "herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight that I love thee." Perhaps, I am looking at these words too much by today's standards, nevertheless, there still seems to be a bit more than friendship here. Of course this idea is continued when Orlando woos Rosalind, but in the form of Ganymede, a "boy". Even the name Ganymede references a homosexual love between a man and a young boy. Shakespeare must have been aware of this when naming Rosalind's masculine counterpart.
             The ease with which these characters were just able to "switch" genders is also an important part of As You Like It. By putting on a disguise, Rosalind easily passes as a man, and yet from time to time acts as a stereotypical Elizabethan woman, fainting at the sight of blood, etc. This of course brings up the idea of assumed gender and assigned sex – quite an advanced subject for Shakespeare's day.
             In the end there are four marriages (between a man and a woman), which we are led to believe live "happily ever after." Each character assumes his or her "natural" identity. Does this then argue for the value of one type of love over another? Or that one way is the right way? I don't think it does. For ...