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Allegory
Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Part Four
Explanation and Analysis—Replacement:
Dramatic irony intensifies the novel’s tensest moment. After the Father storms out of Mr. Capaldi’s, Klara learns at last about the Mother’s plans and reacts to them:
I’d like to say there’s a chance you’ll never need the new Josie. The present one may become healthy. I believe there’s a good chance of this. I’ll need, of course, the opportunity, the chance to make it so. But since you’re so distressed, I’d like to say this now. If ever there comes such a sad day, and Josie is obliged to pass away, I’ll do everything in my power. Mr. Capaldi is correct. It won’t be like the last time with Sal because this time you’ll have me to help. I now understand why you’ve asked me, at every step, to observe and learn Josie. I hope the very sad day will never come, but I’ll use everything I’ve learned to train the new Josie up there to be as much like the former one as possible.
This failure to “get the memo” exposes the gap between Klara’s sensibilities and common intuition. Klara plainly misinterprets the demands placed upon her, despite a set of clues that couldn’t have been any more obvious. She has seen Josie’s replica suspended in the closet. She has heard Mr. Capaldi explain that the “new Josie won’t be an imitation” but a “continuation,” and that “it’s Klara who’ll make the difference.” But she proposes teaching the AF to replicate Josie instead, oblivious to the very fact that she is expected to turn into Josie’s substitute. Klara needs her duty spelled out in its plainest form to grasp it.
Ishiguro exploits this instance of misunderstanding to reveal the AF’s limitations and to complicate the ethical stakes of this plan for replacement. The moment at Mr. Capaldi’s is laden with all kinds of implicit suggestions and moral dilemmas. The reader, Mother, Father, and Mr. Capaldi each recognize what Klara does not, and they are forced to reframe the request in its uncomfortable baldness. This dramatic irony also questions the extent of Klara’s complicity. Can she be guilty of overtaking her human owner even if she has no intentions of doing so? The novel depicts an AF entangled in a plan that she hardly understands, and it reminds the reader that even the well-intentioned can be oblivious participants in acts of dubious morality.
Related Themes:
