Ironic Tone In Christopher Morley's 'On Laziness'
On Laziness
Through generalization, hyperbolic anecdotes, and a sarcastic, snooty, and ironic tone, Christopher Morley’s “On Laziness” clearly acknowledges the shortcoming of laziness. The writing persuades the readers to elude from indolence and lethargy by conveying the strategy of reverse psychology. Rather than Morley bluntly telling the readers his purpose, he discretely drops many hints, until the reader's registered that his supposed purpose couldn’t possibly be correct.
Particularly, the author used ironical tone to further verify his explanation and to convince people of his argument that laziness is a deficient habit that individuals must stop over-identifying with. He starts humorously on how he jokingly “intended to write an essay on Laziness, but were too indolent to do so” and ends concluding that his
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Due to the fact that these statements contradict each other, the audience can easily catch the sarcasm further appealing to their humor. The words he used like, “we rather intended to write..we had in mind…intended to discourse a little…” suggests irony through a frisky tone because he characterizes himself as symbolizing laziness although he is in the process of writing a well-written argument (Morley 1). Additionally, Morley cleverly executes his argument to the reader through the use of the generalization that “the man who is really… slothful is the only thoroughly happy man...It is the happy man who benefits the world” The audience can identify that this great assumption is thought to be ridiculous because the author is associating all lazy people in the world of being happy and those not, to be miserable. The irony is scattered all throughout the argument, such as, “It is our observation that every time we get into trouble it is due to not having been lazy enough”. This implies the humor because it is being lazy that usually leads to trouble. By reversing
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