As You Like It
Act 1 scene 2
Shakespeare sets up a parallel between Orlando and Rosalind because they both act the same way, they both are melancholy. But Rosalind is very different, very well endowed by nature, but has also been nurtured. Shakespeare shows us how she uses language; she can be witty. She is intellectually and verbally dexterous.
Celia wants to raise Rosalind's spirits. She begins the debate of Nature vs. Fortune. Even though Rosalind's first idea was to fall in love, Celia thought that might challenge their virtue, so she comes up with this philosophical question. Fortune is seen as fickle (in a sexist way, like a woman). The way to avoid the vagaries of fortune, one should maintain the golden mean. Rosalind says beauty is a product of nature not fortune. Today we may think that virtue is learned, not an innate characteristic. Celia says that wit or a sense of humor is natural. Rosalind is a character with both nature and nurture but she lacks fortune.
Touchstone shows his facility with language in his view that one cannot be foresworn if one swears by something he does not have.
In comparing the Court to the Forest of Arden, the Court is corrupt; even the fool who should have license to speak truth is silenced.
Rosalind understands what he might be concerned about.
Orlando is speechless because he lacks the nurturing, does not have the words. He uses wrestling language to explain his own love at first sight for Rosalind. The physical wrestling could not overcome Orlando, but Rosalind's generosity when she gives him her chain does.