Question

Read the passage from "The Happy Man." "'The truth is, Doctor, that I've come to see you because I'm happy!' He looked at the doctor to see what effect his statement had had on him but noticed that he was keeping his composure. He felt ridiculous. 'I'm inconceivably happy...' he said in a tone of confidence. He began to tell the doctor his story, but the latter stopped him with a gesture of his hand. 'An overwhelming, indelible, debilitating happiness?' he asked quietly. He stared at him in amazement and was on the point of saying something, but the doctor spoke first. 'A happiness which has made you stop working,' he asked, 'abandon your friends, and detest going to sleep?...' 'You're a miracle!' he shouted. 'Every time you get involved in some misfortune,' the psychiatrist continued quietly, 'you dissolve into laughter?...' 'Sir...are you familiar with the invisible?' 'No!' he said with a smile. 'Nothing like that. But I get a similar case in my clinic at least once a week!" Which of the following stylistic elements is used by the writer in these lines to create humor? (1 point) hyperbole incongruity irony sarcasm

Answer 1

The correct answer is C. Irony

Explanation:

The irony is a rhetorical device in which the literal meaning differs from the real meaning or message a person wants to communicate, additionally irony implies an incongruence of what is expected on some situation and what really happens or what is say and what those words really mean. In the passage from "The Happy Man" irony is used to create humor as one of the characters expresses "The truth is, Doctor, that I've come to see you because I'm happy!", but we know going to the Doctor means one is sick or it is not fine physically or mentally, which means there is an incongruence between what is expected or the character says he is happy but means the opposite, additionally irony can be seen in  'A happiness which has made you stop working,' he asked, 'abandon your friends, and detest going to sleep?...' as the Doctor's words show the incongruence between the meaning of happiness and what is expected and what the other character says. In this way, this excerpt contains irony as it shows the incongruence between the characters words and the reality or what is expected.