Although comedy and sarcasm are similar literary manners, they aggressively contrast in a few cardinal countries. These cardinal differences are clear in a comparing of the comedic short narrative The Night the Bed Fell, by James Thurber, and the satiric Marrying Absurd, by Joan Didion. Broadly defined, a comedy can be is a work picturing the acclivitous battle and eventual success of a sympathetic hero ; normally about ordinary people in hard but non-life-threatening quandaries. Satire, on the other manus, is a genre that exposes and ridicules human frailty and folly. Its characters are normally unsympathetic, frequently abhorrent and seldom commendable. Marrying Absurd and The Night the Bed Fell can be contrasted as representatives of their genre s in three countries: their tone, their intent and their method.
The tone of a comedy is by and large blithe and entertaining, whereas the tone of a sarcasm is critical and roasting. In fact, what most aggressively separates comedy from sarcasm is their amusement quality. In this tradition, through his descriptions of assorted characters, Thurber clearly sets a blithe tone for his comedic short narrative, The Night the Bed Fell. Thurber makes straightforward word pictures, instead than knocking his characters for their eccentricity. For illustration, he describes his Aunt Gracie Shoaf as, holding a burglar phobic disorder, but she met it with great fortitude she scared them off before they could take anything by throwing places down the hallway. If the writer was trying to satirise his Aunt, he would knock her for this unusual behaviour, but instead, he finds amusement in it. Marrying Absurd on the other manus, has a clearly satiric tone. Through her usage laid-back play, and hyperbole, Didion clearly communicates her satiric purpose. For illustration, Didion accounts the braggart averments of a Las Vegas justness of the piece ( Mr. Brennan ) who prides himself on the fact that he got the matrimony ceremonial clip down from five proceedingss to three proceedingss. Surely Didion does non detail Mr. Brennan s self-proclaimed achievement because a fast, impersonal ceremonial is a desirable thing. Clearly, she is knocking this adulteration of the sacred establishment of matrimony.
In add-on, these narratives aggressively contrast in their intent, or desired audience reaction. Marrying Absurd is clearly written to elicit disdain, or at least disapproval for its topic, the Las Vegas matrimony. The Night The Bed Fell, nevertheless, was written merely to arouse amusement. For illustration, the absurdness of Thurber s gap line in The Night the Bed Fell is an first-class illustration of his comedic intent: I suppose the high-water grade of my young person in Columbus, Ohio, was the dark the bed fell on my male parent. Surely, nil can be earnestly concluded from a bed falling on Thurber s male parent. From the really beginning of his amusing study, Thurber asserts his intent. Didion, on the other manus, doubtless communicates her disapproval of
the Las Vegas premise that, matrimony like snake eyess, is a game to be played when the tabular array seems hot. In her fierce disapprobation, Didion conveys the intent of her societal commentary and her outlook that her audience to hold with her resistance. After all, how can readers non be moved or disturbed by a sobbing, under aged, pregnant bride.
Both Marrying Absurd and The Night the Bed Fell intend to arouse an emotional response. However, the coveted emotional responses for each piece are different. The writer s distinguishable composing methods or techniques are responsible for readers different emotional responses to each narrative. The Night the Bed Fell has a clearly lighthearted experiencing partially as a consequence of Thurber s description, or the manner of the descriptions. His composing possesses childly simpleness and matter-of-factness, which serves to maintain his comedy humourous. For illustration, Thurber describes his female parent s odd concern for his male parent in a insouciant tone: My female parent opposed the impression strongly because she said the heavy headboard would crash down and kill him. Didion s roasting and sarcastic grownup composing manner, on the other manus, reminds readers of the dry disagreement between people s outlooks of matrimony and the world of matrimony. For illustration, Mr. Brennan ironically states, I could ve married them en masse, but they re people non cattle. Peoples expect more Here, Didion cynically uses Brennan as a symbol of the Las Vegas matrimony, which she so clearly detests. In add-on, the method in which the writers sequence their narrations helps to specify their differences. For illustration, in the last paragraphs of Marrying Absurd, Didion includes three written marrying snapshots. She describes a bibulous chorus girl bride in the orange minidress and her expendable nephew bridegroom ; existent nuptials parties waiting under the rough visible radiations and the nuptials group in the eating house where the immature, pregnant bride calls with pleasance at the politeness of her nuptials. Each of these illustrations, arranged in this order of declining circumstance, serves to contrast the bride s felicity with the world of her nuptials. Clearly, she has mistaken the flashiness and cheese of her nuptials for a personally momentous ceremonial. In The Night the Bed Fell the characters are in an every bit absurd state of affairs and are forced to cover with that state of affairs, all the piece declaiming cagey lines for the amusement of the audience. Whereas, the fortunes described in Marrying Absurd go increasingly worse, The Night the Bed Fell ends merrily: The state of affairs was eventually put together like a mammoth jig-saw mystifier.
In decision, a comparing of the assorted elements of each piece of authorship, clearly illustrates their differences ; differences which may non be evident after an initial reading of each. Even, in their most basic nature The Night the Bed Fell and Marrying Absurd can be contrasted. One is comedy and one I satire. One serves to roast its object and the other has the intent of pure amusement. However they are both of every bit as gratifying, if judged maintaining the writer s tone, intent and method in head.
