I have been reading The Great Code by Northrop Frye, the eminent literary Critic. The subtitle of the book is, The Bible and Literature. The Great Code does just what the title promises and gives us a Code or key to a deeper understanding of the Bible and unfolds myth and metaphor as a way to unlock meaning woven into the texts that lie in its pages.
There are many parts of the book which had a profound impact
on me. However, one passage that
resonated particularly with me in the book is found on page 73, “The Bible’s vision
of misery is ironic rather than tragic.” This book is not light reading but is it most
worthwhile delving into the depths of Frye’s approach to the Bible. This phrase was up there with the most
puzzling. I wany to try and unpack this
statement and explore what is behind this statement.
The first thing I became aware of in considering this is
that I was not completely sure what irony actually is. One thing I could be sure of is that it wasn’t
“rain on your wedding day” as claimed by Alanis Morrisette in her breakthrough hit,
Ironic. Here’s a link if you want
to be reminded about the song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_tqW-Gno2k.
Just because it rains on your wedding day doesn’t make the occasion
or the experience ironic. One clear
definition of irony is, “the use of words to express something other than and
especially the opposite of the literal meaning.” There is often a humorous result. Some examples of irony in literature which I
fund on-line include:
·
In the[GL1]
final act of Romeo and Juliette, Shakespeare employs dramatic irony to keep the
audience on the edge of their seats. Friar
Laurence sends a messenger to tell Romeo about Juliet’s plan to drug herself
into deathlike coma. We watch in horror as the messenger fails to deliver this
vital piece of information. And though we know that Juliet is not really dead,
we see Romeo poison himself because he cannot live without her.
·
Johnathan Swift’s A Modest
Proposal is a classic example of verbal irony. He begins seemingly in
earnest, discussing the sad state of destitute children. whoever could find out a fair,
cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the
commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up
for a preserver of the nation. Seems reasonable enough. But things take a
very ironic turn. I have been assured
by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy
child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome
food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
Is Swift sincerely proposing that we eat children? No, but he has
indeed inverted our expectations and written a wonderfully ironic essay which critiqued
the situation in Ireland.
There is no humor in the first example but there is very
dark humor in the second so we can see that humor Is not an essential component
of irony. However, to turn back to Frye’s
statement, can the misery in the Bible be seen as ironic? In his preliminary discussion of this, Frye
notes that literature (remember Frye is treating the Bible as literature), has
two great organizing patterns, comedy and tragedy. Comedy does not relate to humor but, rather,
is the restoration of the natural order i.e., a happy ending. Tragedy does the opposite; toward a
fulfillment of the saying, “no man is happy until he is dead” to use Frye’s
example. Frye notes:
To see misery as tragic, as a destroyed and
perverted form of greatness and splendor, is a primary achievement of Geek literature. The Bible’s vision of misery is ironic rather
than tragic, but the same dialectical separation of the two worlds is quite
strongly marked.
Frye goes on to explain the difference between God’s time and
our time as God declares in Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and
my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I believe that Frye is stating that misery (tragedy) in the
Bible is ironic because in God’s time all will be restored. There may be events that are tragic from our
perspective but in God’s time, “all shall be well and all shall be well and all
manner of things shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich)
May you be blessed with a portion of irony and may all be
well on your journey.
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