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Definition of Verbal Irony
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging outside and someone remarks "what... read full definition
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging... read full definition
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean... read full definition
Verbal Irony
Explanation and Analysis—“Interested” Soldiers:
The narrator describes his (and other soldiers’) experience of showing up to the hospital for rehabilitation therapy with verbal irony, as seen in the following passage:
Beyond the old hospital were the new brick pavilions, and there we met every afternoon and were all very polite and interested in what was the matter and sat in the machines that were to make so much difference.
Here, the narrator uses sarcasm when he describes how he and the other soldiers acted “very polite and interested in what was the matter” when arriving for their physical therapy sessions. As the narrator goes on to demonstrate throughout the story, these soldiers are so psychologically wounded from the war that they are not earnestly "interested" in anything (even healing their wounds). In fact, the narrator goes on to describe himself and his fellow soldiers as "detached" as a result of the trauma they experienced.
The narrator’s description of sitting “in the machines that were to make so much difference” also contains verbal irony. Readers come to learn just how ironic this statement is over the course of the story, as the narrator describes the inefficiency of these newly constructed rehabilitation machines and shows how they do not help a single character. The bitter and ironic way the narrator speaks about his experience in the Milan hospital communicates his awareness of how much the war has taken from him and his fellow soldiers and how little hope he has about being able to heal from the physical and psychological wounds of war.
Related Themes:
