Having just read As You Like It in my Shakespeare II class, I thought it was cool to see that one of my classmates was going to use it for their paper, likely with a focus on Rosalind. Her agency as a woman is something she expands beyond the normal barriers when she goes undercover and assumes another identity, using her knowledge of gendered expectations to have her way with the people around her. Sheโs like an advanced cupid who was matchmaking other people along with herself. If you were to compare her cross-dressing experience to Viola from The Tempest, Rosalind had much more freedom and flexibility even considering her circumstance as a banished individual.
With another assigned reading, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, there was a character that was ostracized and disowned after she became pregnant, a life event that is unfortunately common in both works of fiction and real life. She tells her daughter years later that men will always find a way to point an accusatory finger at women, which sets this tone of how ingrained this oppression is. Rosalind was able to take advantage of the expectations of her gender because of her undercover identity as a man. Although she became the object of another womanโs infatuation, Rosalind used her influence and authority as a man to set up the relationships that would most benefit her. She wanted to be married, and at the end of the play she got what she wanted, though not every woman is granted such a choice.
Women are the ones to conceive if sexual relations occurโwhether intentional orotherwiseโso taking advantage of our life where we can is essential for a positive life experience. Considering that, I think Rosalind serves as quite an example.
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