with an incapacity to love, but his love for Aliena comes quick and passionate after his drastic change in personality. The subject of his love, Celia, never showed an interest in love for herself and only marginal interest in Rosalinds when it was not contempt, quite obviously, as testified by her love for Oliver, she joins the crowd in love-sickness. Touchstone also seems to have cultivated a degree of true love for Audrey by this point, as evidenced by his willingness to kill poor William for her. Silvius is ecstatic because he is to marry the woman he loves, however, one could guess that in discovering that the object of her affection is a woman, Phoebe may not have shared Silvius joy.Shakespeare seemed to have an idealistic view of love, which may have been tainted with bitterness by his failed marriage. Both aspects seem to pervade the personalities of Shakespeares characters in As You Like It as shown by the stark comparison that can be made between Orlando and Touchstone. Another very important aspect that influenced the characters in As You Like It was the concrete social distinctions that were made in 17th century Italy. This affected attitudes by way of making non-illicit true love very improbable assuming one spent a considerable amount of time in the presence of classes other than that to which they belonged. Moreover, the times in which Shakespeare lived differed a great deal from life as we live it now, and the peoples notions of love followed accordingly....
