My child swears!

Linkat, I don't dispute that your children are well behaved, I know that.
It's you who is not! You give them the food in the supermarket!

I can only assume sanitary towel means something different in America to what it means over here.

Well h*ll I could tell everyone that - and I don't disbute the fact that I am terribly behaved.

Actually sarcasm is frequently used in literature. Shakespeare is famous for it.

Haha, I bet it is!! Maybe I don't use the right term either, don't quote me,
but at least you know what I mean (hopefully)

Shakeswpeare wrote plays. The characters speech would be SPOKEN, unless of course you're talking about one of his sarcastic sonnets.

Except for my one-olive sins three times, where I admit I should have just complained to the manager (good luck finding him or her) about the labeling mixups, I've don't remember eating in a grocery store either - but I don't see anything wrong with others eating the free sample from the deli. At my butcher shop deli, they do have napkins very visibly on the counter. And snack bars also have napkins.

A grownup grabbing a package of oreos and cracking it open - which I can concede is a temptation - bothers me. If a diabetic person needs sugar fast, I get having some orange juice quickly, and of course keeping the carton or bottle for the checkout lane.. and I can see the oreos for that. And no, I'm not medically able to detect the person's motives. But someone walking all the aisles and demo'ing the oreo package en route.. that grosses me out. So, I come down on the prissy side, which I suppose is at least half locally or regionally cultural.

Sarcasm is the use of language that subverts the user's true meaning or position in order to be scathing or attacking. Specifically, sarcasm is intended to be cutting or wounding to a third party in one's subversive use of language. The roots of the word sarcasm appear to be from the greek sarkasmos which derives from sarkazein and translates as "to bite the lips in rage"1.

Sarcasm can be ironic, especially if expressed without making it clear that the user is being sarcastic.

It needs to be expressed - you can use "tone" in language.

Sarcasm in literature, literary sarcasm : Shakespeare and The Bible
Sarcasm is ever present in literature, particularly in english literature. Sarcasm is a literary bed-fellow of satire and irony and is used almost exclusively as a humorous device. Sarcasm is used for many different reasons, mostimes to simply subvert the original meaning of what is being said as a satire or sending up of the subject.

http://www.isitironic.com/sarcasm-in-literature.htm

Well done for all your busy googling! It's so much better than constructing your own sentences. Just because you can find something on the internet doesn't make it true. It reads like a first year student's essay, I wouldn't give it much creedance, unless of course it's aimed at someone with a rather rudimentary knowledge of literature. They did get one thing right though,

It needs to be expressed - you can use "tone" in language.


Otherwise, it's irony, or satire. I agree with you that some of Shakespeare's characters could be sarcastic. What leaps to mind is Mark Antony's speech following the assassination of Caesar.

'(For Brutus is an honourable man,
So are they all, honourable men)'

Overall though I would say that irony is a far greater feature in Shakespeare's play, Falstaff's 'Discretion is the better part of valour,' springs to mind. There's no sarcasm there, or the drunken porter scene in Macbeth following the murder of Duncan. Overall though I would opt for the character of Malvolio as being the most ironic, particularly where he is shut up in the dungeon pleading with the 'priest' who is in reality the Jester Feste.

I really think your source is aimed at someone who really doesn't understand irony, and needs to be guided towards the meaning by comparing it with sarcasm, a concept that is much easier to grasp.

I do welcome the opportunity to discuss Shakespeare, as it doesn't happen that often. So who would you say is the most sarcastic character in Shakespeare's plays, and who is the most ironic?

I simply used google to support my statement above.

As you wouldn't have believed me otherwise. And with your intense intelligence and wit and such you know much more than anyone else.

But obviously with your degree of high intelligence, you know much better than my English college professor that taught me in regard sacrasm in literature.

<sacrasm is intended>

I heart this thread.

It is all over the place.

I feel like I'm mingling at a cocktail party.

You know, American women do sometimes have what is known as a coin purse, which they keep in their handbag.

However, this is not the same as a wallet, as there are no places for credit cards, drivers licenses, photos, etc.

I like this one, it looks like a fortune cookie. They should make ones that look like shrimp crackers.

Here's a tray of canapes..


uh oh. Those are finger foods!

OMG! I must buy this one!

My minds made up.

<snort>

Ok, here they are.
Napkins are on the table.
Sparkling apple juice on ice, I see.

ok - does anyone actually eat canapes when they're being passed?

dim sum I can do, but canapes <ick>

<not sure anyone under 60 would understand the reference>

I appreciate the sacrasm. So you've not got any favourite sarcastic characters then? I thought you might opt for Shylock or Caliban, or perhaps the Duke in Measure for Measure who also poses as a priest like Feste.

It's funny what you remember your old university professor saying. With mine the thing that stands out most is when he was talking about the smoking ban in New York, he said his brother had visited an establishment with two bars, a smoking bar, and a chain smoking bar. We had a good old chuckle about that I can tell you. Now that's the sort of thing Feste would come up with, but I don't think it's sarcastic.

Incidently don't you think your phrase 'sacrasm is intended' is in itself very ironic?

hell, yes!