The Forest
When Valentine is banished, he ends up in the woods surrounding Milan. There, he communes with nature and laments his situation as an exile who has lost his love. Valentine attributes human characteristics to the natural landscape around him, a literary device known as the pathetic fallacy, in order to illustrate his own sorrow. In particular, Valentine uses the sonic imagery of the nightingale's song to emphasize his sadness at having been separated from Silvia.
Fire and Burning
Throughout the play, characters make frequent reference to fires and things going up in flames. This burning imagery was and remains still a common trope of English literature, in which romantic desire is figured as an uncontrollable fire that can consume someone entirely.
Beauty and Lack of Beauty
Throughout the play, characters equate inward feeling with outward appearance. At one point, Julia (disguised as Sebastian), suggests that she has neglected her appearance since being betrayed by Proteus. Julia asserts that her sense of loss and betrayal has manifested physically in her appearance, making her look less beautiful. Her argument is ironic because, at the time she makes it, she is donning a disguise that has literally transformed her appearance.
Sexual Violence
The imagery of sexual violence is prevalent throughout the entire play, as the female characters worry for their safety (particularly Julia on her journey to Milan) and the male characters allude to perpetrating these acts. Proteus, at the end of the play, directly threatens to rape Silvia, only to be thwarted by Valentine. The allusions to the nightingale, too, emphasize the imagery of sexual violence, as they recall the myth of Philomela, who, after being raped by Tereus, transformed into a nightingale to bemoan her trauma.
