Irony Upon Irony

Another spoiler alert!   Stop reading if you don’t want to know the ending!

Charles chooses an inscription for Emma’s tombstone:  “Amabilem Conjugem Calcas,” which for those of us who do not know Latin translates into something like “You are treading on a loveable wife.”    I just wanted to burst out laughing!   She was only loveable to those who did not really love her.   The prideful woman will now be forever trampled upon by others, imprisoned by the very town she couldn’t stand and, even more ironic, by the title and vocation she loathed.   There will be no escape for the one who spent a lifetime trying to do just that.

 

Really Twisted

Mr. Bumble, the beadle (a church official of sorts at the workhouse), is a self-righteous, odious man, who looks forward to beating children and who would like nothing better than to be rid of Oliver. Get this: on his jacket buttons is the seal of the Good Samaritan!

 

Let’s discuss irony

iro ny n. 1a: the humorous or sardonic use of words to express the opposite of what one really means   1b: an ironic expression or utterance   2a:  inconsistency between an actual and an expected result  2b:  a result marked by such inconsistency

Here is a word that English teachers like to use.   I thought it might be fun to point out some examples of irony in Pride and Prejudice.   So, readers, time to chime in.  What are your favorite examples of irony so far?

I’ll start with one silly quote from Mrs. Bennet to Elizabeth:

…I have no pleasure in talking to undutiful children.  Not that I have much pleasure indeed in talking to any body.  People who suffer as I do from nervous complaints can have no great inclination for talking.  Nobody can tell what I suffer!  But it is always so.  Those who do not complain are never pitied…

She states that she has “no great inclination for talking” and “gets no pleasure from talking to any body,”  but if anyone was to list characteristics of Mrs. B, “talkative” would probably be the first on the list.    Apparently she doesn’t see HERSELF this way.  I’d call this unintentional irony.

Carry on, readers!   Let’s sift out the irony.