The Power of Irony

Type :

School essay

Pages :

3 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

09/04/2007

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Literature

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Summary :

In the letter from the twelfth of August, Werther narrates a discussion he had with Albert that describes their disagreement
Albert declares that ?a man wholly under the influence of his passions has lost his ability to think rationally and is regarded as intoxicated or insane.?
If one finds sympathy in his earlier argument that it is wrong to do this, it now becomes impossible to empathize with Werther since he is doing what he found to be so intolerable
The same kind of self-indulgence that is found in Werther can also be attributed to the character of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost
It is not only the language that Satan uses which draws the reader to him, but also the sound of the passage pulls us in
Satan's self-indulgence can also be seen in Book IV where he is again discussing his fall from heaven

Abstract

Johann Goethe and John Milton both imbed verbal irony in their character's soliloquies which presents two different points of view between what the character is saying and how the reader interprets it. In Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, the reader sympathizes with Werther's intellectual reasoning and his passion for what he believes in. None the less, it is through Werther's passionate words that the reader finds faults with the character's perceptions, thus creating a distance between the reader and Werther. The same can be said for the character of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton's portrayal of Satan makes the reader want to sympathize with him, but at the same time one finds it morally wrong to do so.