In 'As You Like It', what is the name of the forest where the characters flee?

In “As You Like It,” the characters flee to the Forest of Arden. Rosalind is banished by her uncle, Duke Frederick, and her cousin Celia chooses to accompany her. For safety, Rosalind disguises herself as a young man named Ganymede, while Celia adopts the name Aliena. The court fool Touchstone travels with them.

The Forest of Arden is more than a backdrop: it is the play’s alternative to the dangerous, restrictive court. Duke Senior has already been exiled there with his followers, and Orlando later escapes to the same forest after suffering persecution from his older brother Oliver. Away from courtly power, the characters encounter shepherds, lovers, musicians and the melancholy Jaques.

Shakespeare’s Arden has deliberately blurred geography. It can evoke the Ardennes in continental Europe, the setting associated with Thomas Lodge’s prose romance “Rosalynde,” which helped inspire the play. It also recalls the English Forest of Arden in Warwickshire, near Shakespeare’s birthplace and linked to his mother’s family name, Arden.

The forest’s apparent freedom allows disguises and romantic misunderstandings to multiply. Rosalind, still disguised as Ganymede, tests Orlando’s love by pretending to teach him how to court Rosalind. The play ends with several marriages and the restoration of Duke Senior.