Like Whitney this week, I had a hard time finding verbal irony because of how situationally ironic the whole story was. As Whitney describes here, "I found the story entirely ironic because Dick Owens tried so hard to free Grandison and he appeared to be a faithful slave. It was not until the final paragraphs that we learn Grandison wasn’t content being a slave like the Colonel led us all to believe, and the joke was on him."
This story kept plunging deeper and deeper into irony. I found that I always thought I was one step ahead of the characters only to find out that were one step ahead of me. I thought I was so clever reading along and "knowing" what was going to happen. I too felt a little duped by Grandison and Dick, especially after last Friday's discussion.
Dennis on the other hand, seemed to be all over the verbal irony. I loved this line, which I had not even paid attention to before reading Dennis blog. "The funniest line to me is when the narrator tells of the way that Colonel Owens made his riches. '.... and had laid the foundations of his fortune by hard work.' This has a bit of sarcasm in it doesn't it? 'Hard work??'" Dennis then goes on weighing in his opinion of what makes this ironic, " From personal experience I do not believe that hard work would be under the definition of 'slave driver.'"
I feel like this was the main kind of verbal irony found in "The Passing of Grandison" in that most of the time the characters themselves weren't being ironic. However, based upon what we learned about Charles Chesnutt before reading the story it was east to pick up his sarcastic tone seeping through.
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