It is very common for Shakespeare to end a scene on an unexpectedly rhymed couplet. The rhyme serves as cap on the scene, a sort of punctuation mark. It is equally common for the rhyme to detail a plan or prediction for the events of the following act. Indeed, Rosalind describes their flight “to liberty, and not to banishment.”

The name Celia takes on, “Aliena,” comes from the Latin noun “alienus,” which means “alien” or “stranger.” As she notes herself, this new name has “a reference to my state.” By journeying with Rosalind, Celia is estranging herself from her father. In effect, she becomes an alien.

Celia chooses Rosalind over her father. The choice is selfless in that Celia must forfeit her inheritance by abandoning her father’s court. On a thematic level, the close tie between Rosalind and Celia runs counter to the broken ties between each pair of brothers in the play.

For evidence of Rosalind’s untrustworthiness, Duke Frederick falls back on Rosalind’s relationship to her father. Frederick assumes that, because she is her father’s daughter, she must be similar to Duke Senior in character. This touches on the theme of inheritance. Throughout the play, the question of what it is that fathers pass along to their children—be it wealth or character traits—comes up.

After Rosalind decides to disguise herself as a man in order to protect herself and her cousin in the woods, the two women decide to take Touchstone with them. This decision raises the question as to whether Rosalind still needs to dress up like a man.

Rosalind demands to know the source of her guilt. Thus far, Duke Frederick has only said that Rosalind’s words do not preclude her from suspicion. Rosalind turns the same idea around on Frederick, claiming that his “mistrust cannot make me a traitor.” This exchange touches on a thematic thread that runs through the play about the untrustworthy nature of words.

Ganymede, the name that Rosalind chooses for her male persona, is an allusion to a divine hero from Greek mythology. Ganymede was rumored to be the most beautiful mortal on Earth. Zeus turns into an eagle to kidnap him so that Ganymede will serve as a cupbearer on Olympus. In poetry Ganymede came to represent homosexual desire and love.

As Duke Frederick enters the scene and his conversation with Rosalind begins, the language subtly shifts from prose to blank iambic pentameter verse. It is common for Shakespeare to pen the dialogue of aristocratic characters in the more formal blank verse and to give the more common characters passages of prose. It figures that Rosalind would craft her plea to the Duke by matching his blank verse, as she does in this line. Note how, even after the Duke leaves, the rest of the scene unfolds in blank verse dialogue.

Rosalind claims that masculinity can be put on and taken off like a costume, pointing to an underlying logic of internal versus external states. She claims that in her heart, “women’s fear” may still exist, but in her external appearance she will be fiercely masculine. She speaks about the human tendency to “outface” one’s internal feelings with “semblances.”

Here Rosalind characterizes the “curtle-axe,” or short sword, and spear as symbolic of masculinity. When she claims that she will pose as a man, she points to these external, violent items to construct her masculine identity. In this way, gender is portrayed as an external mask that can be put on and taken off.

Celia evokes the wrestling event from earlier in the act, retooling it into a metaphor for Rosalind’s struggle with her emotions. Rosalind then cleverly points to Orlando — the “better wrestler” — as the source of her current emotional state.

This line offers some insight into Rosalind as a character and prefigures her plans to dress as a man. In shedding her beauty, she is no longer the object of both male desire and power. Ironically, she gains power in ridding herself of something others consider precious.

Celia’s pun, an alteration of “briers” to “burs” is telling. A brier is a thorny bush, whereas a bur refers specifically to the thorns of a flower. As flowers are a classic symbol of love and fertility, the metaphor of the bur is fitting. Rosalind’s emotions are the result of her newfound feelings for Orlando.

Duke Frederick says this to Celia to insult her. However, in the last scene fools were said to have great insight while wise men were presented as fools. In a twist of dramatic irony, the Duke means to discredit Celia but unwittingly points out that her refusal to follow his orders is shrewd.

Celia here points out the faulty logic behind inherited rivalries or affections. Celia does not respect her father’s opinions or choices and therefore cannot hate Orlando simply because of his lineage. This reasoning however undermines the social caste system in which one’s birth determines everything about their life. This play repeatedly portrays children rebelling against their parents to underscore a larger theme of social upheaval on a political scale.

The reference to Cupid—the Greco-Roman god of love—signifies that Rosalind’s mood has changed because of her new infatuation. It is not clear whether Celia throws out Cupid’s name because she suspects the source of Rosalind’s silence.

Though Celia and Rosalind have been banished to the Forest of Arden, Celia seems to think it will be more liberating to live in the woods. "Banishment" frees them from the tense jealousies of the court.

There are two meanings to this name.  First, it refers to the myth in which the god Jove becomes so smitten with the young mortal Ganymede that he carries him off to heaven and made him his cup-bearer.  

Secondly, "Ganymede" was slang for a young man who sold sexual favors or was "kept" by an older man.

Those the who defy the world with their ostentatious displays of bravery.

Do not seek to bear by yourself the burdens of your changed fortune.

This is a confusion of the myths.  It is Venus, not Juno, who has two swans yoked together to pull her chariot (and are therefore inseparable).

Cough. Also plays on "bur" in line 14; both are things that get "stuck."

There are many reasons for your silence.  I would be badly injured if those reasons were stones.