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| Irony Another trick of language worth mentioning is Irony. Students are often puzzled when they come across this word. Irony is a kind of language where the hearer, or reader, is intended to understand the opposite of the apparent meaning of the words. It can be used as a sort of joke to make the person it is aimed at laugh. It can also be used, more cruelly, to make others laugh at his ignorance. It can be used to pass information under the noses of such people as secret policemen or spies who may not understand that a whole conversation may mean the opposite of what it seems. In England ironic speech is very common (even though people are not afraid of a secret police). Irony only works when both the listener and the speaker understand what is going on. Here is an example from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (Act III scene II). Mark Antony is making a political speech over Caesar's dead body. He has promised not to condemn Caesar's killers or accuse them of murder. In the words he keeps his promise; in the ironical meaning he breaks it and stirs up the hatred of the people against the assassins. M.Antony. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them The good is oft interred with their bones So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault; And grievously hath Caesar answered it. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, - For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men, - Come I to speak at Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. He hath brought many captives here to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; |
And Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, - not without cause: What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason!... The constant repetition of "honourable" in this speech is ironic. His real meaning is that he thinks they are traitors and enemies and not honourable at all. As the speech proceeds, he hammers into the minds of the people the idea that Brutus and the other conspirators are their enemies too. Puns Sometimes the same word can have two meanings, or two words with the same sound have different meanings, or two words with similar sounds have different meanings. In the above speech brutish beasts is an example. Brutish means like an animal, but it sounds the same as the name, Brutus (which did not mean 'animal' in Latin, though brute does in English). A poet or writer or joker can use these similarities to make people laugh, or to point out the meanings of words to make people think about them. In modern English this technique, punning, is used mostly for what are called bad jokes but in Shakespeare's day it was considered a sign of poetic wit and people were happy to hear it. The normal response to a pun is to groan, rather than laugh. |
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