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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 10
Explanation and Analysis—The Awfully Clean Hotel:
In Chapter 10, as Jake and Bill prepare to travel from Bayonne to Pamplona, they head to their hotel to pay the bill. Jake notices an unwelcome visitor skittering across the floor:
While we were waiting I saw a cockroach on the parquet floor that must have been at least three inches long. I pointed him out to Bill and then put my shoe on him. We agreed he must have come in from the garden. It was really an awfully clean hotel.
Chapter 17
Explanation and Analysis—The Fun of the Fight:
Although Jake and his fellow aficionados go to great lengths to romanticize bullfighting and its sacred significance in The Sun Also Rises, theirs is not a universally shared opinion. In an exchange between Jake and a waiter in Chapter 17, Hemingway uses irony to demonstrate the waiter’s distaste for the sport:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Badly cogido through the back,” he said. He put the pots down on the table and sat down in the chair at the table. “A big horn wound. All for fun. Just for fun. What do you think of that?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s it. All for fun. Fun, you understand.”
“You’re not an aficionado?”
"Me? What are bulls? Animals. Brute animals." He stood up and put his hand on the small of his back. "Right through the back. A cornada right through the back. For fun—you understand."
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—That's the Stuff!:
In Chapter 19, Brett sends Jake a telegram to come find her in Madrid, where she has been staying with Romero. He instantly agrees. Sending a telegram back to her, he ends his message: “Love Jake.” Tortured by his unconscious urge to be with Brett despite her continual pursuit of other lovers, he wryly reflects on his situation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring her back. And sign the wire with love. That was it all right. I went in to lunch.
Related Themes:
