I truly am having a Reality Bites moment this week because all I can think is “That’s Ironic.” I’ve read and re-read The Passing of Grandison, and I’m at a loss for the Irony.
Let me see if I can come close:
Example 1: Page 230 – “ He was a youth about 22, intelligent, handsome and amiable, but extremely indolent, in a graceful and gentlemanly way;”
This could be taken for verbal irony because in fact the speaker actually intends the character to be lazy.
Example 2: page 235 – “ You may take Grandison, said the Colonel to his son. “I allow he’s abolitionist proof.”
This could be seen as situational irony because in fact Grandison is not abolitionist proof.
Example 3: Page 240 – “ Oh Dick,” she had said with shuddering alarm, “What have you done? If they knew it they’d send you to the penitentiary, like they did that Yankee.”
Here, Charity Lomax is upset that Dick Owens hypothetically freed a slave. This irony is situational because the expected outcome was that she would be happy and impressed by his accomplishment. After all it is stated in the beginning that there is nothing Dick Owens won’t do to “please a woman. (230)”
As for verbal irony, I’m having a rough time. Overall, I found the story entirely ironic because Dick Owens tried so hard to free Grandison and he appeared to be a faithful slave. It was not until the final paragraphs that we learn Grandison wasn’t content being a slave like the Colonel led us all to believe, and the joke was on him.
Maybe…. The title is verbal irony because Grandison doesn’t “Pass,” he Lives. Symbolically, the old Grandison dies and the new one gets to live freely amongst his family.
Any thoughts?
Interesting stuff here. I think your examples of situational irony are on target. The verbal irony of the story is a little (forgive the pun) trickier.
ReplyDeleteI noticed you didn't look to Grandison himself for an example of verbal irony. He seems to be the one who would most benefit from its uses, the one who in fact has very little at his disposal to fight for himself *but* verbal irony.
Oftentimes, verbal irony is the tool of the physically or politically weaker. You might even look at the distance between word and meaning in the title, particularly the word you pointed out, "passing."
One way to read that is terms of death, a gentile way to say that someone has died. But irony never stays at one level of meaning. You could also read it as "escaping." Or you might think about the term in terms of Grandison's duplicity. He is in some way "passing" in the role of the loyal slave, all the while planning a large escape for himself and others. The term also has a racial connotation; to "pass" in the Jim Crow south (and even after) meant that a light-skinned black man or woman lived as a white man/woman -- they were "passing" for white. In fact, one of the most famous slave escapes used just this devise.
Thanks! I didn't know that about the Jim Crow Laws, that totally makes sense now.
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