The Court (Symbol)
Through the oath that he and his lords take, the court of King Ferdinand becomes a symbol of scholarship, intellectual pursuit, and temperance. In many ways, the court according to Ferdinand's vision resembles a monastic way of life, in which earthly pleasures are eschewed in favor of study. Of course, this notion of the court as a haven for scholars exists only in Ferdinand's mind, and it is quickly derailed by the arrival of the Princess and her ladies.
The Outskirts (Symbol)
When the Princess of France and her ladies first arrive in Navarre, the King refuses to let them enter the court as he attempts to uphold his oath to avoid women. For the remainder of the play, the ladies stay in the outskirts of town, away from the court and the action surrounding it. These outskirts symbolize a type of freedom in which one can explore and indulge in their natural human impulses; the hunt in which the Princess participates in the wilderness is a dramatic rendering of another such impulse – killing – which takes place far away from the court. The King keeps the Princess and her ladies here in order to avoid temptation and maintain his oath of temperance.
The Nine Worthies (Symbol)
The performance of the Nine Worthies takes place in the final act of the play. In the show, Don Armado and others tell the stories of nine famous men from mythology, history, and the Christian Bible, praising the men for their strength and ideal version of masculinity. Within the context of the broader play, however, the performance is largely ironic: the characters playing these larger-than-life men are weak, foolish, and dim-witted. In this way, the performance of the Nine Worthies symbolizes the masculine ideal that exists in the background of the play – one that the characters themselves consistently fail to achieve.
Love Letters (Symbol)
Both Biron and Don Armado write love letters to their intended women – Rosaline and Jaquenetta, respectively – but neither letter ends up with the correct woman. Costard mixes up the letters, adding confusion and misunderstanding to the play's plot. That these letters do not accomplish what they were supposed to suggests that they symbolize the difficulties inherent to language and communication; what one intends to say often does not reach the correct audience or, if it does, it is frequently misinterpreted.
Love as a Plague (Motif)
One recurring motif that appears in the play is the description of love as a plague or infectious disease. Early on, Boyet tells the Princess that he believes King Ferdinand to be "infected" with "affection," meaning that he is in love with the Princess. Then, Biron refers to his newfound love for Rosaline as a dangerous plague. This motif was not uncommon on the Renaissance stage, and it frequently appeared in Elizabethan-era courtly love poetry as a means of emphasizing the paradoxical nature of love: it is both an ecstatic, all-consuming feeling and a dangerous vulnerability for the lover.
