As You Like It: Question 1 (p. 1119)

"He was to imagine me his love, his mistress; and I set him everyday to woo me." III.ii.p.45

This question touches on whether or not the play employs realistic or unrealistic conventions. I think this scene sums up how unrealistic the play really is. It is very unrealistic that Rosalind, the woman Orlando is madly in love with, is able to just dress up as a man and talk to him without any suspicion. If her disguise didn't already give it away, the dialogue would have to force Orlando to recognize her. Rosalind, as her alter ego, is literally teaching Orlando how to treat and act around her. To me, it just seemed way too unrealistic that this could actually happen without Orlando catching on. In addition to this, the fact that Duke Frederick has a change of heart on a whim when talking to a religious man seems very unrealistic as well. It completely changes the play, and the dialogue between them wasn't even in it; it was simply summarized by another character. Because of all these things, I felt that the play was very unrealistic at times which unfortunately led me to lose a lot of interest in it as well.