But it is more than irony: one of the main reasons why nationalism is no longer a tenable concept is because it has spread throughout the planet.

Moral dread is seen as the other face of desire, and here psychoanalysis delivers to the writer a magnificent irony and a moral problem of great complexity.

It may be that in this comment he has broken from the conventional pattern more violently than in any other regard, for the treatment in his books is far removed from even the genial irony of Ellen Glasgow, who was the only important novelist before him to challenge the conventional picture of planter society.

It is false to be certain of having discovered in the language of Beowulf such effects as intentional irony.

The tragic irony of the play is that the very belief in and concern with a devil who could be met in the woods and combatted with formulae set out in books was the very thing that prevented them from detecting the real devil when he came among them.

This essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language.

" f one regards the Modest Proposal simply as a criticism of condition, about all one can say is that conditions were bad and that Swift's irony brilliantly underscored this fact ".

Featuring vividly outlandish characters, bizarre situations, and equal parts suspense, slapstick, irony, satire, black humor and biting social commentary, Li ' l Abner is considered a classic of the genre.

It is the 1924 tour that is credited as being the first in which the team were referred to as " the Lions ", the irony being that it was on this tour that the single lion-rampant crest was replaced with the forerunner of the four-quartered badge with the symbols of the four represented unions, that is still worn today.

The character of God in the story is progressively revealed through the use of irony.

) Where the irony with which Reefer Madness was adopted as a midnight favorite had its roots in a countercultural sensibility, in the latter's place there is now the paradoxical element of nostalgia: the leading revivals currently on the circuit ironically include clearly non-cult films like John Hughes oeuvre — The Breakfast Club ( 1985 ), Pretty in Pink ( 1986 ), and Ferris Bueller's Day Off ( 1986 ), which were major studio productions and popular and financially successful during their original releases, and the teen adventure film The Goonies ( 1985 ).

Diderot's intention in writing the dialogue is disputed ; whether it is merely a satire on contemporary manners, or a reduction of the theory of self-interest to an absurdity, or the application of irony to the ethics of ordinary convention, or a mere setting for a discussion about music, or a vigorous dramatic sketch of a parasite and a human original.

Elijah speaks with sharp irony: in the religious ambivalence of Israel, she is engaging in a wild and futile religious " dance ".

The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organized religion.

Russ's writing is characterized by anger interspersed with humor and irony.

It can be said that his main trait is technical expertise, irony, detachment and a drive for realism married with a complete spectrum of genres.

" In 1985, David Jasper praised the poem as " one of his greatest meditations on the nature of poetry and poetic creation " and argued " it is through irony, also, as it unsettles and undercuts, that the fragment becomes a Romantic literary form of such importance, nowhere more so than in ' Kubla Khan '.

Writing in the New York Times in 1990, Richard Bernstein noted " The term ' politically correct ,' with its suggestion of Stalinist orthodoxy, is spoken more with irony and disapproval than with reverence.

A common feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —" in satire, irony is militant "— but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing.

Absalom himself was caught by his head in the boughs of an oak-tree as the mule he was riding ran beneath it-an irony given that he was previously renowned for his abundant hair and handsome head.

Oliver argues that in the speech, there is no clear evidence of either seriousness or irony but instead " this lecture by Kate on the wife's duty to submit is the only fitting climax to the farce – and for that very reason it cannot logically be taken seriously, orthodox though the views expressed may be [...] attempting to take the last scene as a continuation of the realistic portrayal of character leads some modern producers to have it played as a kind of private joke between Petruchio and Kate – or even have Petruchio imply that by now he is thoroughly ashamed of himself.

This presents a clashing irony as a " greater " man could dispense the same advice and find himself being detained in the dungeons or even executed.

Starting from the mid-1820s Heine distanced himself from Romanticism by adding irony, sarcasm and satire into his poetry and making fun of the sentimental-romantic awe of nature and of figures of speech in contemporary poetry and literature.

Marceau also showed his versatility in motion pictures such as First Class, in which he played 17 roles, Shanks, where he combined his silent art, playing a deaf and mute puppeteer, and his speaking talent, as a mad scientist ; as Professor Ping in Barbarella, and a cameo as himself in Mel Brooks ' Silent Movie, in which, with purposeful irony, his character has the only audible speaking part, uttering the single word " No!

This irony relates to an internal conflict of Nietzsche's: he hated religious leaders but perceived himself as at least somewhat akin to one.

Niebuhr's concept of irony referred to situations in which " the consequences of an act are diametrically opposed to the original intention ", and " the fundamental cause of the disparity lies in the actor himself, and his original purpose ".

This however adds some irony, as he still refers to himself as The Great Zorglub.

Apted also commented on the irony that as a documentary maker himself, Charles was the only one who refused to continue.

The irony of the situation wasn't lost on Linus, who laughed himself silly over his sister's scheme being defeated, thus causing her to lose her temper and tie his blanket over his mouth.

Grieg himself wrote: " For the Hall of the Mountain King I have written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and ' to-thyself-be-enough-ness ' that I can't bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt.

The character of Zen himself is anti-heroic, which adds much to the books ' irony and black humour.

The theme of identity, and the subversion of expectations of such, is one that can be seen in The Cherry Orchard ; indeed, the cast itself can be divided up into three distinct parts: the Gayev family ( Ranevskaya, Gayev, Anya and Varya ), family friends ( Lopakhin, Pishchik and Trofimov ), and the " servant class " ( Firs, Yasha, Dunyasha, Charlotta and Yepikhodov ), the irony being that some of them clearly act out of place-think of Varya, the adopted daughter of an aristocrat, effectively being a housekeeper ; Trofimov, the thinking student, being thrown out of university ; Yasha considering himself part of the Parisian cultural élite ; and both the Ranevskayas and Pishchik running low on money while Lopakhin, born a peasant, is practically a millionaire.

With the help of his allies, Leonard ( now styling himself as " Supreme Commander ", a historical irony considering that the late Zentraedi leader Dolza also was " Supreme Commander ") became the most powerful figure in Earth politics.

For this he was violently attacked in the German parliament by the extreme Radicals ; but on this and other occasions ( he had himself been elected to the parliament ) he defended himself effectively because he depended not on eloquence but on a recognition of what has been called the irony of facts to which the parliament as a whole was so blind.

Kelsey considers this a personal failing on his own part, blaming himself for moving away from Annabelle to take up the factory job ( the irony being that he took the job in order to save money to marry Annabelle in the first place ), and is so sensitive about the " Situation " that he refuses to discuss it with other people-or, if pressed, claim that he and Annabelle are due to wed in the near future, despite the fact that Annabelle never consents to marry Kelsey.

" He turned to crime writing in a light – hearted way before the war and soon afterwards established himself as a leading exponent of it, though his use of irony to show the violence behind the respectable masks of society place many of his books on the level of the orthodox novel.

The book Road of the Patriarch mentions that Jarlaxle's birth was an irony and chaos that Jarlaxle himself would appreciate.

In the Odi the satirical note is already heard, but it comes out more strongly in Del giorno, in which he imagines himself to be teaching a young Milanese patrician all the habits and ways of gallant life ; he shows up all its ridiculous frivolities, and with delicate irony unmasks the futilities of aristocratic habits.

There is no small irony in the fact that this 19th-century scholar / bureaucrat would find himself at a crucial nexus of managing political change — moving arguably " by the book " through uncharted waters with well-settled theories as the only guide.

In a bit of dramatic irony, Stroker, who spends most of his time trying to bed women, fails miserably at it, while Hoop, who most often comes across as asexual, often finds himself having sex with gorgeous women who throw themselves at him ( usually for their own selfish needs ).

With a pardonable irony Shelley wrote to the father who had publicly disowned his daughter:

One could note a certain irony: one of the first acts of many of the newly independent states was to adopt the law of the foreign sovereign from whom independence had just been gained.

She argued that Barna had formulated his report with undue irony and skepticism, and that he had failed to take into account the reasons for the data which enkindled his " arrière pensée.

Madero pointed out the irony that in 1871, Porfirio Díaz's political slogan had been " No Re-election ".

However, this deed, too, failed to make him the figure of tragic destiny he had hoped to become ; it merely gave his end a touch of repulsive irony.

In an irony of fate, Rousseau's later injunction to women to breastfeed their own babies ( as had previously been recommended by the French natural scientist Buffon ), probably saved the lives of thousands of infants.

Throughout the twentieth century, Stonehenge began to be revived as a place of religious significance, this time by adherents of Neopagan and New Age beliefs, particularly the Neo-druids: the historian Ronald Hutton would later remark that " it was a great, and potentially uncomfortable, irony that modern Druids had arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from it.

One irony in the Bears victory was that Payton had a relatively poor performance running the ball and never scored a touchdown in Super Bowl XX, his first and only Super Bowl appearance during his Hall of Fame career ( Many people including Mike Ditka have claimed that the reason for this due to the fact that the Patriots defensive scheme was centered around stopping Walter Payton ).

Once the new replacement bridge had been built, without the least feeling of irony, he proceeded to compose an ode to the new construction: " An Address to the New Tay Bridge " " Strong enough all windy storms to defy ".

The groom may be a mere detail: the new editor of Modern Bride began her inaugural column, without irony: " I really did have the wedding of my dreams, the wedding that had been floating around my head for years before I met my husband.

Some critics have noted the irony of an Italian director who could not speak English, and had never even visited the United States, let alone the American Old West, almost single-handedly redefining the typical vision of the American cowboy.

In the meantime, the Pequot War had broken out, and it was a great irony that Massachusetts Bay was forced to ask for Roger Williams ' help.

Stansky notes the irony that the Fine Art Society of London, which had organized a collection to pay for Ruskin's legal costs, supported him in etching " the stones of Venice " ( and in exhibiting the series in 1883 ), which helped recoup Whistler's costs.

The irony is Eurytus years earlier had taught Heracles to become an archer.

The greatest irony was that if the VI Corps main effort had continued on the Valmontone axis on May 26 and the days following, Clark could undoubtedly have reached Rome more quickly than he was able to do by the route northwest from Cisterna.

In addition there is anecdotal evidence of focus groups rebelling, for instance the name for the Ford Focus, was created by a focus group which had grown bored and impatient and the irony of this was not picked up by the marketing team.

In a strange irony, the Northumberland Fusiliers had originally been founded from Irish followers of the Prince of Orange in 1694, before he became William III, whereas his own ancestors had fought on the other side.

This is an irony, as it was Worf who had killed Duras to enable Gowron to ascend to the Chancellorship in the first place.

His methods of journalism, which made great use of irony and ad hominem criticism, had already provoked more than one duel, and he was imprisoned for a brief time for his polemics against the University of Paris.

Much like in 1927, the Bisons failed to win a game in their final season until their final game, when in a case of cosmic irony they upset the Chicago Bears 19-7 ; thus, the very team that had spoiled their lossless season in 1921 had spoiled their winless season in 1929.

La Harpe has said that the poet, called by his friends, perhaps with a spice of irony, Lebrun-Pindare, had written many fine strophes but not one good ode.