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Imagery
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:
In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:
On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Fogg's reason for firing Forster is ludicrous, but it plays on real fears people had in the 19th century. With industrialization came mass production, intensified assembly lines, and the idea that human beings were only valuable if they could perform very specific jobs with machine-like precision. People feared—rightfully so, in many cases—that human workers would come to be seen as replaceable. First they would be replaced by one another, and later they would be replaced by machines like the cotton gin.
Forster is fired for not behaving more like a machine. But the novel also demonstrates that employers want human workers to act like machines for silly reasons. Machine-like workers aren't better, they are simply fashionable. It seems possible that the water may have cooled by as much as two degrees during the time it took Fogg to measure the temperature. A machine may be as exact as Fogg wants, but even that might be a stretch. Forster is clearly a detail-oriented servant if he gets the shaving water so close to Fogg's desired temperature, and it seems unlikely that Fogg is going to find anyone who can do a better job every single time. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Fogg would be able to tell the difference between 84° shaving water and 86° shaving water were he not using a thermometer to check. What would have been perfectly fine to his human senses is a problem only once he involves technology. This early moment in the novel seems to suggest that Fogg's unrealistic expectation of Forster actually makes him more unhappy than he would be if he were to simply accept that his servant is human.
This early moment sets the tone for the novel's sustained satire on industrial society. A moment of situational irony at the end of the novel, in Chapter 37, punctuates the satire:
Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on his journey, and this merely because he had travelled constantly eastward; he would, on the contrary, have lost a day, had he gone in the opposite direction, that is, westward.
Fogg's entire goal in the novel is to prove that he can operate like a machine, and that the entire world operates like a machine. But it is only due to random chance and human error that he succeeds at all. The irony of this resolution drives home the idea that pursuing machine-like precision is a fool's errand for humanity. Fogg barely makes a profit from his journey. Although he technically proves that he can travel around the world in 80 days, he also proves that humanity will always be fallible.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—A Regular Machine:
Passepartout first agrees to work as Fogg's servant under the impression that the job will allow him to settle down in London and embrace a predictable routine. In Chapter 2, Passepartout uses a metaphor to describe Fogg's predictability as an employer:
“This is just what I wanted! Ah, we shall get on together, Mr. Fogg and I! What a domestic and regular gentleman! A real machine; well, I don’t mind serving a machine.”
Of course, Fogg is a human, not a machine. But Passepartout imagines him as a "real machine" because he is so "regular." That is, he has an extremely precise routine that would almost be impossible for any human to maintain. Chapter 1 outlines this routine:
He breakfasted and dined at the club, at hours mathematically fixed, in the same room, at the same table, never taking his meals with other members, much less bringing a guest with him; and went home at exactly midnight, only to retire at once to bed.
In fact, Fogg does everything with such precision that he fired his last servant for bringing him shaving water two degrees colder than usual. Most people would find these working conditions too demanding. Industrialization was still fairly new when Verne published this novel in the 1870s. At the time, labor laws and labor unions were far less developed than they are in the 21st century. People had even greater fears then than they do now about the division of labor, the replacement of human workers with machines, and the expectation that human workers structure their lives around work. The idea that Fogg is a machine and expects his employees to behave as predictably as machines makes him, on the one hand, an employer who is far too committed to industrialization and technology to treat his employees as full humans who occasionally err and require grace.
On the other hand, Passepartout is excited to work for Fogg for the same reason people may be excited to work for a corporation in the 21st century: working for Fogg promises a stable routine to a man who, true to his name, has "passed through everywhere" and is ready for a more long-term position in one place. There is situational irony in Passepartout's metaphor for Fogg because the premise of the novel is that Fogg is about to break all Passepartout's predictions. He behaves entirely "irregularly" by leaving the "domestic" behind, and Passepartout must continue traveling everywhere in order to keep his new job.
But there is another layer of situational irony: in a way, Passepartout is right that Fogg will be a "domestic and regular gentleman" to work for. At least for a while, Fogg follows all the same routines abroad as at home. Fogg is traveling not for the adventure, but rather to prove his own mechanical ability to predict and manage time. He fails in many instances to experience the cultures of the new places he is passing through, so he may as well be at home. He expects Passepartout to fulfill all the same duties regardless of where they are. It is ironic that Passepartout gets both exactly what he wants (working for a "real machine") and exactly what he doesn't want (trailing his employer around the world without regard for the lifestyle he wants outside of work). This irony illuminates a truth that many people were grappling with in the newly industrialized landscape: work that provides stability often comes with strings attached.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—A Regular Machine:
Passepartout first agrees to work as Fogg's servant under the impression that the job will allow him to settle down in London and embrace a predictable routine. In Chapter 2, Passepartout uses a metaphor to describe Fogg's predictability as an employer:
“This is just what I wanted! Ah, we shall get on together, Mr. Fogg and I! What a domestic and regular gentleman! A real machine; well, I don’t mind serving a machine.”
Of course, Fogg is a human, not a machine. But Passepartout imagines him as a "real machine" because he is so "regular." That is, he has an extremely precise routine that would almost be impossible for any human to maintain. Chapter 1 outlines this routine:
He breakfasted and dined at the club, at hours mathematically fixed, in the same room, at the same table, never taking his meals with other members, much less bringing a guest with him; and went home at exactly midnight, only to retire at once to bed.
In fact, Fogg does everything with such precision that he fired his last servant for bringing him shaving water two degrees colder than usual. Most people would find these working conditions too demanding. Industrialization was still fairly new when Verne published this novel in the 1870s. At the time, labor laws and labor unions were far less developed than they are in the 21st century. People had even greater fears then than they do now about the division of labor, the replacement of human workers with machines, and the expectation that human workers structure their lives around work. The idea that Fogg is a machine and expects his employees to behave as predictably as machines makes him, on the one hand, an employer who is far too committed to industrialization and technology to treat his employees as full humans who occasionally err and require grace.
On the other hand, Passepartout is excited to work for Fogg for the same reason people may be excited to work for a corporation in the 21st century: working for Fogg promises a stable routine to a man who, true to his name, has "passed through everywhere" and is ready for a more long-term position in one place. There is situational irony in Passepartout's metaphor for Fogg because the premise of the novel is that Fogg is about to break all Passepartout's predictions. He behaves entirely "irregularly" by leaving the "domestic" behind, and Passepartout must continue traveling everywhere in order to keep his new job.
But there is another layer of situational irony: in a way, Passepartout is right that Fogg will be a "domestic and regular gentleman" to work for. At least for a while, Fogg follows all the same routines abroad as at home. Fogg is traveling not for the adventure, but rather to prove his own mechanical ability to predict and manage time. He fails in many instances to experience the cultures of the new places he is passing through, so he may as well be at home. He expects Passepartout to fulfill all the same duties regardless of where they are. It is ironic that Passepartout gets both exactly what he wants (working for a "real machine") and exactly what he doesn't want (trailing his employer around the world without regard for the lifestyle he wants outside of work). This irony illuminates a truth that many people were grappling with in the newly industrialized landscape: work that provides stability often comes with strings attached.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Bad Detective :
Multiple layers of dramatic irony occurs in Chapter 8, when Fix tells the consul that he thinks he has identified the bank robber from London. The consul asks him why the robber would go out of his way to get his visa checked:
“Why was this robber so anxious to prove, by the visa, that he had passed through Suez?”
The consul points out that if Fogg were the bank robber, he would probably be more likely to avoid having his paperwork checked at every possible turn. The moment is funny because of the dramatic irony: no one except for the consul (a bystander in the conflict and a stand-in for the reader) knows what they are talking about.
The first layer of dramatic irony has to do with the reason Fix thinks he has proof that Fogg is the bank robber. Fix has pumped Passepartout for information. Passepartout does not realize that Fix is trying to arrest Fogg, so he has willingly answered all Fix's questions. The reader thus sees a hitch in Fogg's plan coming before he or Passepartout do, and Passepartout comes out looking honest to a fault.
Second, Fix is wrong about who the bank robber is. The reader does not know for sure at this point that Fix is wrong, but a careful reader can deduce just what the consul does: if Fogg is the bank robber, he is not very smart about it. Fix spends the entire novel chasing Fogg around the globe, trying to arrest him, when the real robber has already been arrested. The consul voices what the reader is likely already thinking: Fogg's itinerary is very public, which is not what someone on the run would want. Fix's failure to see this problem with his investigation leads him on a wild goose chase. The ongoing dramatic irony surrounding Fix's mistake is integral to the novel's satire of industrialization, imperialism, and modernization. If the world has truly "grown smaller," and if technology has made everything more efficient, Fix should receive word that he is after the wrong man. Instead, the ability to chase a suspect around the entire world leads to 80 days of wasted time for the detective.
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Elephants and Sledges:
There is a moment of situational irony in Chapter 11, when Fogg and his companions must charter an elephant to cross part of India:
Provisions were purchased at Kholby, and while Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg took the howdahs on either side, Passepartout got astride the saddle-cloth between them. The Parsee perched himself on the elephant’s neck, and at nine o’clock they set out from the village, the animal marching off through the dense forest of palms by the shortest cut.
Fogg's wager is built on the idea that modern technology and industrialization have made the world much faster to circumnavigate than ever before. When he discovers that part of India has not yet been penetrated by train tracks, one of the industrial technologies that is most important to his hypothesis, Fogg confidently finds another mode of transit. Having gained two days earlier in the journey, he is not worried about this setback. Still, it is ironic that Fogg relies on an elephant to transport him through this part of India. Native to India, elephants are a resource that would have been available to travelers long before the railroads existed. Moreover, the elephant is arguably more effective than Western technology at crossing the terrain. Whereas the railroad company still has to clear the way and build tracks through this region, the elephant can cut right through the "dense forest of palms." Even if the elephant helps Fogg stick to his itinerary, his reliance on this traditional mode of transport challenges the idea that railroads and steamships are what allow a quick journey around the world.
The limitation of modern technology comes up again later in the journey, in Chapter 31. When snow prevents the trains from moving along the tracks in the American Midwest, Fogg and company take a sledge instead:
During the winter, when the trains are blocked up by the snow, these sledges make extremely rapid journeys across the frozen plains from one station to another. Provided with more sail than a cutter, and with the wind behind them, they slip over the surface of the prairies with a speed equal if not superior to that of the express trains.
This moment confirms that it is not only India where modern technology isn't as reliable as traditional transportation. These repeated instances of traditional, regional knowledge prevailing over modern, imperial knowledge contributes to the novel's satire of industrialization and imperialism. Fogg manages to travel around the world in 80 days, but he would not have succeeded if he had insisted on using only the most "cutting-edge" industrial technologies that Europe is exporting all over the world.
Related Themes:
Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—Twelve Hours Off:
In Chapter 24, on his way across the Pacific Ocean, Passepartout congratulates himself on keeping his watch on London time because it now matches perfectly with the timepieces on the ship. The narration uses dramatic irony to foreshadow the end of the novel:
Passepartout was ignorant that, if the face of his watch had been divided into twenty-four hours, like the Italian clocks, he would have no reason for exultation; for the hands of his watch would then, instead of as now indicating nine o‘clock in the morning, indicate nine o’clock in the evening, that is the twenty-first hour after midnight,—precisely the difference between London time and that of the one hundred and eightieth meridian.
In this passage, the narration lets the reader in on what Passepartout doesn't know: his watch matches up with the time on the ship's chronometers because it only has numbers 1 through 12 and does not note whether it is nine o'clock a.m. or p.m. Halfway around the world from London, there is exactly a 12-hour time difference that Passepartout forgets to consider.
The dramatic irony here (the reader sees something Passepartout does not) creates suspense. The stated point of Fogg and Passepartout's journey is to travel around the world at an unprecedented pace, so time is of the utmost importance. The reader is left wondering when Passepartout will realize his mistake. The narrator saves the discovery for the end of the novel, when the reader has all but forgotten Passepartout's mistake. The reveal that Passepartout and Fogg have accounted incorrectly for the time change, and that they have in fact made the journey faster than they realized, is all the more dramatic because of the foreshadowing in Chapter 24.
Dramatic irony in this passage also contributes to the novel's critique of imperialism and Western attitudes of superiority over the entire world. Earlier in the same passage, the narration explains that Passepartout's mistake about the time is made possible by his condescending Western attitude toward the regions he has been passing through:
It will be remembered that the obstinate fellow had insisted on keeping his famous family watch at London time, and on regarding that of the countries he had passed through as quite false and unreliable.
Passepartout has kept his watch set to London time because he has a poor opinion of non-Western countries' ability to keep time. Ironically, though, he is the one who is wrong about the time. Fogg's hypothesis is that imperialism and industrialization (Western exports to the rest of the world) allow him to manage his schedule down to the minute, even factoring in chance delays. But here, Passepartout's strict Western loyalty to his watch and to London's time zone makes him worse at managing time. This moment foreshadows not only the plot twist at the end of the novel, but also the novel's ultimate conclusion that Fogg's hypothesis is only weakly supported by his journey.
Related Themes:
Chapter 31
Explanation and Analysis—Elephants and Sledges:
There is a moment of situational irony in Chapter 11, when Fogg and his companions must charter an elephant to cross part of India:
Provisions were purchased at Kholby, and while Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg took the howdahs on either side, Passepartout got astride the saddle-cloth between them. The Parsee perched himself on the elephant’s neck, and at nine o’clock they set out from the village, the animal marching off through the dense forest of palms by the shortest cut.
Fogg's wager is built on the idea that modern technology and industrialization have made the world much faster to circumnavigate than ever before. When he discovers that part of India has not yet been penetrated by train tracks, one of the industrial technologies that is most important to his hypothesis, Fogg confidently finds another mode of transit. Having gained two days earlier in the journey, he is not worried about this setback. Still, it is ironic that Fogg relies on an elephant to transport him through this part of India. Native to India, elephants are a resource that would have been available to travelers long before the railroads existed. Moreover, the elephant is arguably more effective than Western technology at crossing the terrain. Whereas the railroad company still has to clear the way and build tracks through this region, the elephant can cut right through the "dense forest of palms." Even if the elephant helps Fogg stick to his itinerary, his reliance on this traditional mode of transport challenges the idea that railroads and steamships are what allow a quick journey around the world.
The limitation of modern technology comes up again later in the journey, in Chapter 31. When snow prevents the trains from moving along the tracks in the American Midwest, Fogg and company take a sledge instead:
During the winter, when the trains are blocked up by the snow, these sledges make extremely rapid journeys across the frozen plains from one station to another. Provided with more sail than a cutter, and with the wind behind them, they slip over the surface of the prairies with a speed equal if not superior to that of the express trains.
This moment confirms that it is not only India where modern technology isn't as reliable as traditional transportation. These repeated instances of traditional, regional knowledge prevailing over modern, imperial knowledge contributes to the novel's satire of industrialization and imperialism. Fogg manages to travel around the world in 80 days, but he would not have succeeded if he had insisted on using only the most "cutting-edge" industrial technologies that Europe is exporting all over the world.
Related Themes:
Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:
In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:
On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Fogg's reason for firing Forster is ludicrous, but it plays on real fears people had in the 19th century. With industrialization came mass production, intensified assembly lines, and the idea that human beings were only valuable if they could perform very specific jobs with machine-like precision. People feared—rightfully so, in many cases—that human workers would come to be seen as replaceable. First they would be replaced by one another, and later they would be replaced by machines like the cotton gin.
Forster is fired for not behaving more like a machine. But the novel also demonstrates that employers want human workers to act like machines for silly reasons. Machine-like workers aren't better, they are simply fashionable. It seems possible that the water may have cooled by as much as two degrees during the time it took Fogg to measure the temperature. A machine may be as exact as Fogg wants, but even that might be a stretch. Forster is clearly a detail-oriented servant if he gets the shaving water so close to Fogg's desired temperature, and it seems unlikely that Fogg is going to find anyone who can do a better job every single time. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Fogg would be able to tell the difference between 84° shaving water and 86° shaving water were he not using a thermometer to check. What would have been perfectly fine to his human senses is a problem only once he involves technology. This early moment in the novel seems to suggest that Fogg's unrealistic expectation of Forster actually makes him more unhappy than he would be if he were to simply accept that his servant is human.
This early moment sets the tone for the novel's sustained satire on industrial society. A moment of situational irony at the end of the novel, in Chapter 37, punctuates the satire:
Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on his journey, and this merely because he had travelled constantly eastward; he would, on the contrary, have lost a day, had he gone in the opposite direction, that is, westward.
Fogg's entire goal in the novel is to prove that he can operate like a machine, and that the entire world operates like a machine. But it is only due to random chance and human error that he succeeds at all. The irony of this resolution drives home the idea that pursuing machine-like precision is a fool's errand for humanity. Fogg barely makes a profit from his journey. Although he technically proves that he can travel around the world in 80 days, he also proves that humanity will always be fallible.
Related Themes:
