Back to: As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Celia is the daughter of Duke Frederick who banishes the rightful Duke Senior from his position to the forest of Arden. Rosalind, the daughter of Duke Senior is the best friend of her cousin, Celia.
The character of Rosalind as a protagonist of the play overpowers the presence of the character of Celia but Celia possesses almost every feminine charm.
In the play, she is a selfless character who from the very beginning devotes everything for her cousin’s sister. Celia does everything which brings prominence to Rosalind.
She is as beautiful as Rosalind because Orlando after coming across them says that your “beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.”
Between Rosalind and Celia, it is Celia who is more practical. Rosalind is bold and courageous and Celia is too because it is Celia who gives her the idea to leave the palace for somewhere more secure.
Even when her father banishes Rosalind, she assures her selflessly that one day when the dukedom will be hers, she will give it away to Rosalind.
Although Celia looks practical and asks Rosalind to “love no man in good earnest”, it is her character who falls in love with Oliver at the very first sight and they decide to get married at soonest.
When Rosalind, disguised as Ganymede, criticizes her own gender, Celia corrects her that “you have simply misused our sex in your love-prate; we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your head and show the world what the bird hath done to her nest.”
Celia’s character is an embodiment of unselfishness. Throughout the play, she keeps sacrificing her personal comforts for the ones she loves. She doesn’t even think twice before expressing that she will go into exile along with Rosalind to seek her uncle in the Forest of Arden.
Her devotion to Rosalind is almost spiritual. In the very first Act of the play, it says that she “loves her (Rosalind) being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have followed her into exile, or have died to stay behind her, and never two ladies loved as they do.”
Celia is an idealized character. In her own words, she is one of “Juno’s swans” who is “coupled and inseparable” from Rosalind.
