Oh the Irony of it all.
The Passing of Grandison is chock full of irony. When I first started reading the story I thought, I need to keep an eye out for some ironic stuff. Turns out that there is plenty of irony and I didn’t have to look. The irony just pops up throughout the whole story.
Situational Irony
The whole plot line is ironic. Dick, the son of a slave owner and a young master himself, attempts to take Grandison up north to free him so that Dick can convince Charity to marry him. However, Grandison does not seem to be to enthusiastic about this freedom. Grandison is called “abolitionist proof” by the colonel and it sure seems he is (pg. 235) It takes Dick leaving Grandison in Canada for him to stay and even then Grandison still comes back to the plantation.
Slave master trying to free slave, and slave not willing to go. That is ironic.
What’s more ironic is that after Grandison is given a hero’s welcome home
. . . . . he and his whole family escapes to Canada.
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| Ha Ha. I am always paranoid about this happening when I call my self a genius. (see the blog title) |
It is ironic that Dick curses the “stupidity of a slave who could not be free and would not” and this same slave plans the escape of his whole family (out-smarting the slave masters ) (237).
And when Dick tells Charity about what he did she scolds him (ironic) and then marries him because he needs someone to keep him in check (more irony).
Is there such thing as a layered irony?
There is so much more!
Ironic Names?
Charity and Dick
And is it just me or it the whole title ironic? The Passing of Grandison.
Verbal Irony
It’s Ironic that the colonel’s slaves are “sacred to him” (pg. 234) They are obviously not “sacred” to him.
This makes it ironic.
“What cold-blooded, heartless monsters they were who would break up this blissful relationship of kindly protection . . . . “ (pg. 234)
This is a description of an abolitionist and completely ironic. Of course this is not the case. This can be compared to saying “nice Job!” to someone who just failed.
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| Ha Ha Ha. Seriously. |
Great job. I really like the "scared" example of verbal irony. The colonel himself, though I think he believes every word that comes out of his oafish, bloviating mouth, is a deeply ironic character, almost a complete reversal of a popular representations of abolitionists.
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