# Phebe — As You Like It character guide

> Phebe in As You Like It by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Silvius Sweet Phebe, Phebe Youth, Phebe Dead Shepherd

**First appearance:** 0018-act-iii-scene-v

## Snapshot

A proud shepherdess who scorns the shepherd Silvius and then falls hopelessly in love with Ganymede, not knowing the boy is Rosalind in disguise.

## Who they are

Phebe is the beautiful, hard-hearted object of Silvius's devotion, and she treats his love as an inconvenience until she meets a sharper tongue in the forest. When Ganymede mocks her, she mistakes contempt for godhead and writes him a letter that Rosalind reads aloud with delight. Her sudden passion is both a joke about the arbitrariness of desire and a mirror held up to Orlando: she is what happens when love is refused, and her eventual surrender—reluctant, embarrassed, real—is one of the play's quieter satisfactions.

## Relationships

### [Rosalind](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/characters/rosalind)

_romantic_

Phebe becomes infatuated with Rosalind disguised as Ganymede, creating a one-sided romantic obsession.

### [Silvius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/characters/silvius)

_romantic_

Phebe cruelly rejects Silvius's devoted love while he remains hopelessly obsessed with her.

### [Rosalind](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/characters/rosalind)

_romantic_

Phebe becomes infatuated with Rosalind disguised as Ganymede, creating a one-sided romantic obsession.

## In the story

### [Scene V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-v)

Rejects Silvius, is scolded by Rosalind, and falls in love with Ganymede at first sight.

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters/act-v-scene-ii)

Continues to express her love for Ganymede (Rosalind) and agrees to meet the next day.

### [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters/act-v-scene-iv)

Reluctantly accepts Silvius after realizing Ganymede is a woman, keeping her word.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/characters/phebe
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/as_you_like_it_se/characters