Love, gender, and sexuality in regard to the literary traditions of the pastoral and the sonnet in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet

Abstract

Shakespeare's plays As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet portray love and its sub-themes such as gender and sexuality while also being associated with the literary traditions of the pastoral and the sonnet. In each work the playwright uses love, gender, and sexuality to distance himself from or to criticise the conventions of the traditions. This paper studies the texts to present how Shakespeare challenged the sonnet and the pastoral through his use of love, gender, and sexuality.