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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
Book 6, Chapter 56
Explanation and Analysis—Exciting Topics:
In an example of verbal irony, the narrator sarcastically explains how little Middlemarch residents support railway development:
In the hundred to which Middlemarch belonged railways were as exciting a topic as the Reform Bill or the imminent horrors of Cholera, and those who held the most decided views on the subject were women and landholders.
Here the narrator claims that the townspeople of Middlemarch find railways an “exciting” topic. They mean the opposite of this, of course, as becomes clear in the rest of the quote—these rural residents are not excited about railway development or the Reform Bill, and certainly not the horrors of cholera. All three topics in this list are upsetting to Middlemarch residents—railways because they require taking land from landowners on which to build and are, at this point in time, seen as dangerous (particularly by uppity women like Mrs. Cadwallader); the Reform Bill because it expands voting rights to people who had long been disenfranchised (something the conservative town is overwhelmingly against); and cholera because it is a terrifying epidemic. Here Eliot is showing the ways that Middlemarch residents resist progressive reform, and that this was characteristic of small-minded rural communities in England at the time.
Related Themes:
Book 7, Chapter 71
Explanation and Analysis—Hungry Gossip:
When describing the town’s reaction to the news that Raffles died on Bulstrode’s watch (and that Bulstrode had paid Dr. Lydgate a thousand pounds right around that time), the narrator uses hyperbole and verbal irony:
The business was felt to be so public and important that it required dinners to feed it, and many invitations were just then issued and accepted on the strength of this scandal concerning Bulstrode and Lydgate; wives, widows, and single ladies took their work and went out to tea oftener than usual; and all public conviviality, from the Green Dragon to Dollop's, gathered a zest which could not be won from the question whether the Lords would throw out the Reform Bill.
By writing that the gossip was so “important that it required dinners to feed it” and that the news was more exciting than the Reform Bill, Eliot is clearly exaggerating—gossip does not “require” people to have dinners to discuss it and the political implications of Reform Bill are certainly more important to the townspeople than idle chatter (as has been clear over the course of the novel).
The tongue-in-cheek tone is also clearly ironic—the narrator believes that the townspeople are overreacting. This is one of the many examples of the people of Middlemarch caring more about gossip than about the well-being of the members of their community.
Related Themes:
Book 8, Chapter 84
Explanation and Analysis—Baby Buddha:
In an example of verbal irony, the narrator describes Celia’s baby Arthur as “the infantine Bouddha”:
Mrs. Cadwallader, the Dowager Lady Chettam, and Celia were sometimes seated on garden-chairs, sometimes walking to meet little Arthur, who was being drawn in his chariot, and, as became the infantine Bouddha, was sheltered by his sacred umbrella with handsome silken fringe.
This passage is Eliot’s way of highlighting how spoiled and overly-worshipped Arthur is, and hints at the resentment Dorothea feels about how women’s energies are supposed to be directed at their children at all times. It is unlikely that a baby would be so well-behaved that they would be perceived as an enlightened being, and, more likely, the language signals that this is how Arthur’s doting mother Celia is treating him as he is the center of her world (and at the center of the worlds of the other women who are present).
Middlemarch overall portrays Celia as a woman who fulfills traditional gender roles and is content to do so, while Dorothea tries to resist those roles and ends up unhappy. Dorothea, of course, does end up with children by the end of the novel, but still never quite feels satisfied or like she has reached her full potential.
Related Themes:
