As You Like It: Rosalind As Ganymede

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first action taken by Rosalind that indicates her balanced state is when Duke Frederick has banished her from his court, and she decides to leave disguised as a man. This action shows that even though she is female, she doesn’t feel the need to act feminine all of the time in order to be self-assured as a woman. She doesn’t fully throw herself into her new role though, because she knows that she will still think like a woman, and she says so herself in Act 1, Scene 3, when first contemplating the idea:
Were it not better,
Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did suit me all points like a man?
A gallant curtal ax upon my thigh,
A boar spear in my hand, and - in my heart,
Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will-
(113-117)
This speech shows that Rosalind is sensible enough to know that putting on a man’s clothes is not going to get rid of the feelings she has as a woman. She may be able to look and act like a man, but she will not be able to think like ...

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One person she doesn’t have to pretend in front of though, is the clown, Touchstone. His characters knows that she is really a woman, yet Rosalind still manages to balance out his views on love. From every speech Touchstone gives, the reader can see that he is a very physical person and thinks more in terms of things he can see and touch instead of in things that are more spiritual in nature. One example of this is when Rosalind tells him that he is wiser about love than he knows, and he replies by saying, “nay, I shall ne’er be ware of mine own wit till I break my shins against it,” (2.4: 55-56). What he is implying here is that he will never know how wise he is because it is not ...

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