ould have not gone through the emotional struggles that helped her reach the turning point that opened her eyes as to what was best for her and helped her become a mature woman. She would have gotten Demetrius before she was emotionally ready to deal with a real relationship with him and she would have still been that immature girl that shamelessly pursued him into the forest. Orlando is a good man who is held back by his brother. He falls in love with Rosalind, a daughter of a Duke, and becomes speechless: “What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue? / I cannot speak to her, yet she urg’d conference” (1.2.257-258). His problem is that he idealizes Rosalind and cannot see her as a “regular” person. Because he has not been brought up properly, he thinks that he has nothing to bring to the relationship. Orlando escapes to the Forest of Arden to get away from his brother; but, like Rosalind, that is not the only reason he is in the forest. He is there to explore love and to find out more about it. He learns that he must be willing to take risks to get what he wants. He tells Ganymede that he would die without Rosalind, but Ganymede reassures him that he will not die from love: “No, faith, die by attorney. The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man died...in a love-cause...men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love” (4.1.94-97, 106-108). When Orlando sees that Rosalind is not perfect, he is able to relax around her and realizes that they can have a relationship after all. In the end, he and Rosalind and Helena and Demetrius work out all their problems and are married and we get the impression that they all will live “happily ever after.” Shakespeare teaches us some things that we all can learn about love, life, and relationships. One lesson teaches us that we cannot take love for grante...
