Suggest a few instances in the poem "The Tale of Melon City", which highlight humor and irony.
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Answers
'The Tale of Melon City' is full of irony and humour. There is a 'just and placid' king who in the end, becomes the victim of his own sense of justice. He is 'placid' but flares up on small issues and passes death sentence. The king, who is supposed to rule, gets ruled by others - chief of builders, masons, architect, wise man, and so on and so forth. After the death of the king, the state is ruled by a melon. It is humorous to the extent of being ridiculous. But underneath lies a message - when people are disillusioned and without direction, it hardly matters to them who their king is - a human being or a melon
Answer:
The poem is full of humour and irony. The decision of the king to hang the chief of the builders for constructing a low arch when his crown struck against it evokes laughter among the readers. It is an example of humour. The way the king got convinced that actually the labourers who constructed the arch were responsible is also humourous. The king wanted to hang the labourers but the labourers were able to defend themselves. This situation is humorous as it evokes laughter among the readers and ironic as the readers find that the labourers are able to shift the responsibility to the architect. Ironically, the architect is able to shift the responsibility to the king himself. The selection of the wisest man who would give the verdict as to who was the real culprit evokes laughter and is, therefore, humorous. The old man ultimately blamed the arch and declared that the arch must be hanged. Ironically, one of the ministers pointed out that the gathering wanted a man to be hanged. As the noose fitted the king's neck, so, he was hanged.'
The choice of a successor is humorous as an idiot is consulted in selecting the successor. The idiot chose a melon who became the symbolic head of the state.