"As You Like It" - Irony

"Sweet youth, I pray you, chide a year together: I had rather hear you chide than this man woo." (III.v.52)
This play gets its comedic value through dramatic irony. The reader knows much more regarding the character's situations than the rest of the characters do. Rosalind is a major point of this irony. She is dressed up as a man, and the reader knows that she is a woman. On the other hand, certain characters - specifically Phebe - do not know this. We get much entertainment out of Phebe's love for Rosalind and Rosalind's efforts to convince Phebe that she shouldn't trust her. However, Phebe just doesn't understand what's wrong with Rosalind. While this play wasn't very funny, the dramatic situations as such keep the reading continuing reading to find the end result of the dramatic mess.