Understanding Shakespeare: As You Like It by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

Anne Barton in her introduction to As You Like It in The Riverside Shakespeare makes the following observations:

1. The story is derived from Thomas Lodge Rosalynde or Euphue’s Golden Legacy (1590), an Elizabethan prose work. Lodge’s romance has similar characters (except for Jacques, Touchstone, and Audrey) and a similar plot. However, in Shakespeare’s play, the two dukes are brothers and Celia and Rosalind are cousins. There is also less violence in WS play.
2. There is not much action or suspense in the play. Shakespeare stresses words and ideas above action.
3. Shakespeare provides a substitute for plot: “a structure of juxtaposed characters and attitudes”:

ideas, themes, contrasts: court vs. country

nature vs. fortune youth vs. age

realism vs. romanticism nobility vs. virtue

active life vs. contemplative life laughter vs. melancholy

[truth vs. falsehood]

4. The play, however, does not assert choices in the above.