Celia: The One Who Actually Gives Everything Up

Celia is the daughter of the usurping Duke Frederick, which means she has everything Rosalind has lost. When her father banishes Rosalind in Act 1 Scene 3, Celia refuses to stay. She tells her father that her own good reputation is tied to Rosalind's. He does not care. She leaves anyway, taking Touchstone and half the court's jewels.

She gives up genuine power for friendship. Rosalind gets most of the play's attention and most of the wit, but it is Celia who makes the larger sacrifice. She disguises herself as a shepherdess called Aliena, which is (as Rosalind points out) a name that means 'the stranger.' She has become foreign in her own story.

In Act 3 Scene 2 she identifies Orlando to Rosalind ('It is he, 'tis he') and then spends the rest of the scene watching her cousin conduct the most elaborate flirtation in Shakespeare while unable to admit who she is. By Act 5 she has fallen for Oliver, Orlando's reformed older brother, apparently in an afternoon. The play gives her a happy ending too.