Different Roles of Irony in Fussell
The excessive use of irony throughout World War I literature paints a colorful scheme of thoughtfulness and style. Paul Fussell gives one explanation in The Great War and Modern Memory by stating that the war itself "is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends" (7). Writers obviously realized the irony of war and in turn wrote in this style maybe not by intention, but because it was inescapable.
Providing a feeling of sorrow and pity seems to motivate Siegfried Sassoon in his poem titled "The Hero" in which an officer tells a mother that her son was brave although in truthfulness he was a coward:
"…For a while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.
He thought how "Jack," cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair" (7).
An underlying tone of the irony in this poem points that the soldiers are mere pawns in the war. That "no one seemed to care" allows Sassoon to radiate his own feelings of helplessness.
Irony provides dramatization in Wilfred Owens writing. Vivid descriptiveness is a key by-product of this dramatization. In "Insensibility" Owen defines the use of irony often with one line:
"Happy are men...
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Works Cited
Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. London: Oxford University
Press, 1975.
---, eds. The Norton Book of Modern War. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1991.
Owen, Wilfred. Wilfred Owen: Collected Letters. Handout given in class.
Brooke, Rupert. "IV. The Dead." Bibliomania. Online. Intellos. 5 April 200.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. London: Oxford University
Press, 1975.
---, eds. The Norton Book of Modern War. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1991.
Owen, Wilfred. Wilfred Owen: Collected Letters. Handout given in class.
Brooke, Rupert. "IV. The Dead." Bibliomania. Online. Intellos. 5 April 200.