Love and Comedy in as You like It

The play As You Like It is a comedy about pastoral romances. The characters depicted in the play are in love and seek to find their true loves. Among these characters is one that is significant because that character goes against the grain of the play's theme. Touchstone the Clown is a character that is under no illusions about the love the other characters feel. His function in the play is to balance out the love expressed by the other characters. Shakespeare employs him in the play as an effective character through his dialogue and interaction with the other characters.

Touchstone the Clown is the driving force of reason in the play. He is under no illusions of love, he knows how people act and that they should act intelligently. If they do not act intelligently they are subject to his ridicule. The first piece of information that conveys the nature of Touchstone is his name. In the Elizabethan days a person would buy gold and needed to see if it were real or not they would use something called a touchstone to scrape at the gold. If gold were seen in the scratch the gold would be real. This is significant to his name because he acts much like the real touchstone. In the play he uses his wit to get to the truth of the other characters.

The wit of Touchstone is the first aspect that sets him apart from the other characters. He uses it to separate them from conventional norms. The first argument he has in the play is with Rosalind and Celia. He begins the small argument about honor.

"No more was this knight, swearing by his honor, for he never had any; or if he had, he had sworn it away before he had ever saw those pancakes or that mustard." (As You Like It, I, ii, 72-74)

In this passage he argues that he has more honor than a knight. A knight would typically be full of honor, but has sworn it away for pancakes and mustard. By Touchstone's standards he has less or no honor because the knight is quick to give it away, while Touchstone has more because he does not give out his honor. This is used to show how Touchstone can be separated from the other characters. There are other instances where he lampoons manners and society with his wit. This wit employed by Shakespeare is used effectively because it makes the dialogue of Touchstone much sharper compared to the others.

Because of his wit Touchstone sees himself above the other characters. He feels he can ridicule them and they will not know because they are not as intelligent as he is. The exchanges with the shepard is very witty. He thinks he is better than the country folk. This disdain is caused because of their connection to the idea of pastoral romance. His exchanges with Silvius are funny because Touchstone makes fun of him by mimicking his situation. This pompous nature is a connection to his name. He knows the truth about life and human nature and he holds that information over the rest of the characters. This aspect of wit and humor adds something to Touchstone; it shows that he knows what he mocks. This is intelligence is significant to the play because it shows that Touchstone knows all sides of life. The other characters lack this aspect because they blindly follow what they feel without seeing any other side of life.

Touchstone uses this wit to attack the pastoral romance. Roslind and Celia are reading love poems found in the trees and Touchstone is unimpressed by it. All of the lines in the poem rhyme at the end and with basic words.

"I'll rhyme you so eight years together, dinners, and suppers, and sleeping hours expected. It is the right butterwomen's rank to market." (As You Like IT, III, ii, 91-93)

Touchstone says that based on this rhyme he can spend eight years writing this kind of doggerel expressed in the poem because it is very easy. Touchstone wants poetry that will be more complex and relatable to smarter people. He expresses this notion later on in the play when Touchstone shares a scene with his girlfriend Audrey.

"No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most faining, and lovers are given to poetry, and what they swear in poetry may be said as lovers do feign." (As You Like It, III, iii, 16-18)

The poetry of lovers is not real poetry because it lies to lovers. The lovers make themselves believe that they are in love and nothing else matters. This is not for Touchstone because he wants the base experience of humans without the fluffy promises of pastoral love. This section also marks a section where Touchstone is the most anti-pastoral. He has lead his girlfriend to believe that they are going to marry. This is only a ruse to get her to have sex with him. He is at his wittiest when he is trying to have sex with her, because he is turning her against what she believes in. She wants love and will only have sex with someone once she is married to him.

He woes her by telling her that she is ugly and from that is the true beauty. Even though she is ugly and desired by no one she will be sexual. What makes this section significant in the play and further shows the role of Touchstone is the use of words. He speaks in antithetical statements to pastoral romance poetry. His words are base and praise the base things about Audrey. And not only is his about the truth of people, but it isn't about love. His words are about lust in the basest form.

As described in the earlier sections of the paper Touchstone's wit is his defining feature. This feature employed by Shakespeare is what makes Touchstone's appearance in the play effective. When the dialogue of Touchstone is read and compared to the other characters there is a discernible difference. Touchstone is sharper and rougher in his speeches. This is because he understands the base needs of humans. This understanding is about lust and how ludicrous society can be when it follows a certain ideal. Touchstone makes it apparent that people should be intelligent and not subject to things that cloud their minds. Seeing Silvius in love Touchstone makes fun of him, this is because Silvius is acting ludicrous because of love for Phebe.

The people that he travels with further separate touchstone from other characters. His friend Jaques is not a man that believes in love, and he is the only character at the end of the play that does not get married. By his association and shared beliefs with Jaques Touchstone is set deeper into the idea that he is different from the others.

Touchstone sets himself apart as a significant part of the play by his wit, and intelligence. He speaks out against formal society and how the other people think. He is presented as the antithesis to pastoral romance and its trappings. The only aspect of his character that fails is his function in the play. His function is to turn people away from the pastoral romance. But in the end the other characters get married and believe in love. But in all other aspects Touchstone is a successful character.