In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the character of Lysander expresses the idea that "the course of true love never did run smooth" (I.i.134), and this represents a theme the runs through many of Shakespeare's plays and indeed through much of world literature. The statement itself embodies several ideas. First, it assumes that there is such a thing as true love and that it is a conception based on the idea that two people are literally meant for each other. Second, it states that these two people, though meant for each other, may have to endure a good deal before they can actually achieve the love they feel. Shakespeare works these ideas through in several of his works, including The Taming of the Shrew and As You Like It, in each of which there are various pairings reflecting different aspects of love and relationships.
In both plays, there are contrasting couples used to illustrate different concepts of love and to serve to balance one another. In As You Like It, Phebe and Silvius, the rustics, are lovers contrasted with Orlando and Rosalind. Silvius pines for Phebe, who continually denies him, while Orlando is too shy to speak his mind to Rosalind and only connects with her when she is masquerading as a young man. Love is presented in The Taming of the Shrew in a somewhat different light, since what needs to be overcome here is the reluctance of the lovers themselves to be in love. This applies to Petruchio as well as to Kate, though Kate is the one most obviously fighting any closeness.
Both plays have a certain folktale quality that indicates their origins. As You Like It derives from tales in which an old king has three daughters, with the older one wicked and the younger one good, and from one in which a knight has three sons, the oldest one wicked and the youngest one good. The younger son in the latter escapes from a plot by his brother and later returns in triumph. Orlando is gentler than...