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that he got dismissed because of the confusion in his scandal and his friend is not the one to blame. In short, he flouts maxim of quality by using a metaphor.
e. Irony
When someone expresses a positive sentiment but implies a negative one, even if heshe uses it to hurt others, heshe is considered to use irony. A dialogue that
contains irony is a dialogue between Martin and Philomena. They talk about the Philomena’s plan to go to a church.
Philomena: To confess my sins, of course. Martin : What sins? The Catholic Church should go to confession, not
you.Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I incarcerated a load of young women against their will, used them as slave
labours, then sold their babies to the highest bidder.
37QLIO During their travel in the United States, Philomena tells Martin that she wants to stop
by at a church to confess her sins. However, Martin who does not believe in God anymore appears reluctant to grant the old lady’s wish.
In response to her wish, Martin tells Philomena that she should not go to church and confess her sins. Besides, he also tells her that the Catholic Church is the
one who is supposed to confess because of the sins that it has done. To sum up, Martin flouts the maxim of quality by giving sarcasm, a part of irony, because he says
that Philomena did nothing wrong but insults the Catholic Church, which is related to Philomena’s faith and his words contain more negative sentiments than regular irony.
The second example of irony occurs in another dialogue between Martin and Philomena. In this case, they talk about happiness gained from Martin’s faith.
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Philomena: And youre happy and balanced, are you? Martin : Im a journalist, Philomena. We ask questions. We dont believe
something just because were told its the truth. Yet what does the Bible say? Happy are those who do not see yet believe
Hooray for blind faith and ignorance.
39QLIO Philomena, a devout Catholic, doubts that Martin can be happy when he does not
believe in God and asks whether he has a happy and balanced life or not. She does that after Martin said that people do not need a religion to lead a happy and balanced
life, which irritates her, presumably because he looked pretentious when he told her his opinion.
In response to Philomena’s question, Martin quotes the Bible, which says ‘Happy are those who do not see yet believe’. He thinks that those words suit well
with Philomena, which makes her look ignorant to him. After that, he says ‘Hooray for blind faith and ignorance’ in insulting tone, to tell Philomena that it is good to
believe in blind faith, which is the opposite of what he thinks. In other words, he flouts maxim of quality by giving sarcasm, a type of irony.
f. Being Irrelevant
