A Demonstration of an Hypothesis of the Function of Irony in Comedy and Tragedy

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a demonstration of an hypothesis. This demonstration is necessarily limited by my present knowledge, but I hope nonetheless to give a broad outline of my approach which will point to areas of further study. I believe that I have uncovered an area not adequately considered by the major theories of the comic. I assume that a continuum exists between the comic and the tragic, a continuum structured and defined by a perception of irony. In limiting this study to perception we avoid the overworked area of cause and effect. For irony mediates between the cause and the effect and, in so doing, becomes a special kind of cause in its own right.