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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
Chapter 75. Give My Regards to Albert Schweitzer
Explanation and Analysis—Saint, I Think:
John’s hyperbolic account presents Julian Castle as a man of wild contrasts. On one page, he associates the American sugar millionaire with the likes of “Tommy Manville, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Barbara Hutton.” Castle’s “selfish phase” involves “lechery, alcoholism, reckless driving, and draft evasion.” Having established a hospital in San Lorenzo, though, he is now the epitome of virtue:
And then Angela Hoenikker Conners, Newt’s beanpole sister, came in with Julian Castle, father of Philip, and founder of the House of Hope and Mercy in the Jungle. Castle wore a baggy white linen suit and a string tie. He had a scraggly mustache. He was bald. He was scrawny. He was a saint, I think.
Related Themes:
