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Belonging to place. Duke Senior is exiled from his court by his younger brother Frederick and goes to live in the Forest of Arden. In the court, their life is portrayed as like the golden world. When the Duke and his court or ‘brothers in exile’ are sent to the Forest of Arden, Duke Senior describe it as having an ‘icy fang’ the ‘winter’s wind … bites’ and ‘I shrink with cold’ yet prefers it to the court ‘Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court?’. The forest changes people, the court grows to enjoy life in the forest, when Frederick and Oliver (who have turned against their brothers) enter the forest they become loving people, they belong. Oliver describes his brother Orlando as kind and noble while Frederick who was going to ‘take His brother here and put him to the sword’ was then ‘converted’ to lead a religious life. Rosalind and Orlando fall in love in the forest.

Belonging and couples is another theme in this textBelonging and couples is another theme in this text. Numerous characters in this play delve into being in a couple. The main couple is Rosalind and Orlando. Rosalind (as a man, Ganymede) woos Orlando and they fall even deeper in love, in the end getting married ‘To you I give myself for I am yours’. Celia (disguised in the Forest as Aliena) and Oliver also pursue a relationship, they meet in the forest and it is love at first sight Orlando asks Oliver ‘Is’t possible that on so little acquaintance you should like her?’ he replies ‘…the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing … her sudden consenting … I love Aliena…'

Identity is an important part of this play. Rosalind and Celia are an example of this as they disguise themselves when they leave the court. Rosalind is a man, Ganymede and Celia is Aliena. Rosalind as Ganymede gets to know Orlando better as a man. They both open up and talk about Orlando’s love for Rosalind, Orlando unaware that he is actually talking to Rosalind. There is a hint that Oliver has seen through her disguise as he addresses her by her real name when she is Ganymede. Identity is an important concept of belonging and as poet John Clare remarked ‘Self-identity is one of the first principles in everybody’s life.’