Chapter 40 irony

He looked at her face, so close that he could see clearly what was so imperceptible on that fruity cheek.It was a very delicate face.A pair of moving eyes, black and dreamlike.He could feel her tender heart flying toward him.She is slightly taller than him.But somehow she seemed to be hanging on to him.She leaned back, her chest pressed against his, so that he could look down at her instead of up.He likes it.Despite his handsome physique, his size was a problem with him.He felt good and lifted his spirits.His fear was gone, and he was beginning to be satisfied with himself.He had inherited an estate of £120,000.The rare stunner in front of him made him conquer.She became his prisoner.He hugged her tightly.She was willing to let him take a closer look at her skin, and she was willing to let him rumple her flap-like dress.Something about him compelled her to offer her shyness on the altar of his desire.The sun is shining.He kissed her even more fervently, with the condescending look of a victor.Her enthusiastic response brought back his long-lost self-confidence.

"I have only you now," she whispered tenderly. In her ignorance, she thought it would please him to do so.She didn't know that this often makes men shudder, because in the eyes of men, the other party only thinks of his own responsibilities, but not the privileges he enjoys.What she did did not make Gerald aware of his responsibility, but calmed him down.He smiled lightly.To Sophia, his smile was a miracle that was constantly renewed.That smile was full of incomparable happiness and a hint of hope, which fascinated her forever.Anyone with a little more brains than Sophia could see in that womanly smile that you can do anything with Gerald, but you can't trust yourself to him.But Sophia really has to learn a little bit!

Arnold Bennett, "Old Wives' Tales" (1908) In rhetoric, irony means speaking ironically, or the fact that the literal meaning does not match the deeper meaning.Unlike figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, metonymy, or synecdoche, irony is nothing special from the point of view of its choice of words.For irony to be irony, the key lies in explanation.For example, in , the narrator writes: "Every rich bachelor seeks a wife. This is a truth universally acknowledged." The alert reader will realize that it is logical to make such assumptions about rich bachelors. This is a kind of paradox, so this "universally recognized" statement is regarded as an irony to some people in society who specialize in acting as moon elders.The same applies to plots in novels.When the reader realizes that the actual situation deviates from the character's understanding, an effect called "dramatic irony" is produced.It is said that the theme of all novels is basically to describe the transition from innocence to maturity, to discover the essence from the appearance.It is not surprising, therefore, that dramatic irony abounds in this literary form.Most of the quotations discussed in the essay can be analyzed under the category of irony.

Arnold Bennett uses two different methods in this quotation from "Old Women's Tales" to make the actions of the characters ironic.Sophia, the daughter of a Portris draper, is beautiful and sentimental but inexperienced.Gerald Scales is a handsome traveling salesman who has inherited a small fortune.Sophia has a crush on him and elopes with him.The hug scene depicted here is the first in their London residence.It was supposed to be a ecstatic, heart-to-heart moment, but in the end both of them had other plans besides the physical union. Gerald's real motive was to seduce Sophia, but he lacked that confidence when he actually did it.Even in this hug, he was very nervous at the beginning, shy, "found that Sophia was more enthusiastic than himself." However, with the gradual contact, he became more and more confident and sophisticated. "He's feeling good and his spirits are up" is perhaps a sexual pun, since Bennett frequently uses it in this way to hint at things he's afraid to describe directly.However, although Gerald's sexual desire is aroused, it has nothing to do with love and desire in itself, it is only the need of vanity and self-esteem. "There was something about him that compelled her to sacrifice her shyness to the altar of desire." As mentioned earlier "he felt her tender heart flying toward him," this gorgeous The irony of the metaphor is his kind of egotistical thinking. The use of the word "altar" is all the more ironic, because at this moment Gerald still has no intention of leading Sofia to the "altar" of marriage.

So far, Bennett has been looking at things from Gerald's point of view, using just the right amount of language, which implies a mockery of Gerald's character and personality.Gerald is timid and vain.And in this case, he shouldn't have been.This aspect, combined with the almost absurdly smug language he uses to describe this emotion, is enough to make the reader feel disgusted by him.However, in the second paragraph, Bennett uses the omniscient power of the author again, turning the point of view to Sophia, directly commenting on her delusion, thus increasing the irony of the scene.

Sophia's ideas were far more believable than Gerald's, but her "I've only you now" words were in a sense purely to please him.This shows her innocence on the other hand. The "hot-blooded" Sophia told him her feelings in a very tender tone.Gerald "shuddered" at the thought of his responsibilities.He smiled lightly, perfunctory.And this kind of smile is so charming in the eyes of Sophia, who is in love and can't extricate herself.Through this smile, though, the writer tells us that Gerald is unreliable, and heralds Sophia's disillusionment to come.The author's voice is gentle, impartial, and just right, completely drowning out Sophia's "inner voice", thus completely exposing Sophia's mistakes in judgment.

The reader, not being kept in the dark like the person concerned, sympathizes with Sophia and loathes Gerald.Bennett has a "Book of Famous Quotes", one of which says: "The necessary qualities of a truly great novelist: as broad as Christ", which cannot but be amazing.Her handling of the character of Gerald, however, fails to do so.This type of irony does not require readers to infer or interpret, on the contrary, we can only passively accept the author's great wisdom.If the result isn't downright clumsy, it's because Bennett awes readers with his penetrating observations of the human psyche, or because he allows characters, like Sophia, to learn from "mistakes" and overcome them. These errors.