Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich :: Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich Essays

Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle bountifulJonathan Swift has suggested that Satire is a sort ofGlass, wherein Beholders do generally discover every bodys Facetheir own which is the chief reason...that so few ar offendedwith it. Richard Garnett suggests that, Without humour, satireis invictive without literary form, and it is mere clownishjeering. (Encyclopaedia Britannica fourteenth ed. vol. 20 p. 5).Whereas Swifts statement suggests that people are not offendedby satire because readers identify the characters faults withtheir own faults Garnett suggests that humour is the key elementthat does not open satire offensive. With any satire someone isbound to be offended, but the technique the author uses dejectionchange something offensive into something embarrassing. Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich isa nonthreatening, humorous, and revealing satire of the moralfaults of upper class society. The satire acts as a moralinstrument to expose the effect money can have on religion,government, and anything within its touch. Writing about suchtopics is hard to do without offending people. Leacockstechnique combines money with humour, and accompanies his moralmessage with ironic characters their overstate actions, and aconstant comical tone to prevent readers from being offended. Leacocks utopian gentlemans gentleman is filled with humorous labels thatrepresent the Plutonians personalities. Ourselves Monthly amagazine for the newfangled self-centered, is a Plutonian favourite.To fill their idle days, the Plutonian women are in an endlesssearch for trends in literature and religion. Without thedistractions of club luncheons and trying to achieve the highIndifference, the women would have to do something productive.Readers that identify themselves with the class of people thePlutonians represent would be embarrassed rather than offended byLeacocks satirical portrayal of them. The Yahi-Bahi oriental Society exaggerates the stu pidityof the Plutonians to a point where the reader laughs at thecharacters misfortunes. The con men give ridiculous propheciessuch as Many things are til now to happen before others begin.(Leacock 87), and eventually take their money and jewelry. Theexaggeration increases the humour while the moral message isdisplayed. The characters of the novel are ironic in the sence thatthey percieve themselves as being the pinicle of society, yetLeacock makes the look like fools. For someone who pridesthemself on being an expert on just about everything, Mr.Lucullus Fyshes (as slimmy and cold as his name represents)perceptions are proven false. Mr. Fyshe makes hypocraticstatments about ruling class tyranny, while barking down the neckof a poor waiter for serving cold asparagus. Leacock exposes the whole Plutonian buisness world to be