Hannah sites a really interesting section as being verbally ironic in “The Passing of Grandison.” She says,
when the father says is talking about how Tom is too smart to trust among the 'low-down abolitionists'. I find it ironic because he is saying he is too smart because he can read. I guess it may not be irony but the wording seems like it to me
Hannah gets into something I've been thinking a little bit about, and that is the abstract depth of irony. There is a less clear kind of irony going on in this situation. It is ironic that Chestnutt is putting such outlandish statements in the colonel's mouth – statements Chestnutt clearly does not believe himself. What makes it fuzzy it the fact that the character speaking the words actually does believe them. It is how over the top they are that I feel makes them ironic to the heart of the author.
Aha! Here you do a great job of IDing a very subtle form of verbal irony:
ReplyDelete"It is ironic that Chestnutt is putting such outlandish statements in the colonel's mouth – statements Chestnutt clearly does not believe himself. What makes it fuzzy it the fact that the character speaking the words actually does believe them. It is how over the top they are that I feel makes them ironic to the heart of the author."