Sarcasm

Shakespeare uses sarcasm in as you like it to comment about the absurdity of city life and for comedic purposes. Touchstone delivers a lot of sarcasm when talking to the shepherd: “Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd?” the question is sarcastic because of course the shepherd wouldn’t be in court. It’s ironic in his situation of course because he is accompanying Celia and Rosalind who are of the court but disguised as shepherds. But this sarcasm acts as a sort of reminder of the foolish social structure of the city, because in the shepherd’s and touchstones conversation there was a lot of teasing but a lot of intelligence exchanged. Clearly you don’t need come from the court to have wit; the court itself is mostly just full of pretentions. Touchstone also parodies Orlando’s poetry by turning it into a dirty poem. This is partly for comedic relief but also criticizes the heavily romanticized love that really doesn’t make anyone happy. It’s never perfect it’s always made more dramatic than it really is its foolish but it’s relatable and touchstone himself gets married but he takes the marriage light heartedly. Rosalind also points out the foolishness of suffering in love when she says to Orlando: “men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them but not for love.” sarcasm allows Shakespeare to comment on society in a lightheaded but no less intelligent manner.