Irony and Satire
The key narrative tone of most of the shorter works of Leacock (and some of the longer pieces) is ironic satire. Leacock engages irony as a fundamental construction of the point of many essays. This is done by presenting the incidents of the narration in conjunction with the narrative point of view in a way that seems be sincere, but is in reality an ironic inversion of the actual perspective of the author. In other words, the narrator of “The Woman Problem” adopts a chauvinistic and patriarchal sense of condescension towards the idea of women’s suffrage and extension of rights to that are equitable with that enjoyed by men.
The arguments forwarded by the author justifying sexist discrimination are presented in a straightforward fashion by the first-person narrator in a way that for many readers will stimulate the perfectly natural association between the thoughts expressed by a character as the opinions of the author. In reality, of course, the author has created his narrative character as an object of ridicule; his perspective is put on display not to praise him, but to bury him. Many people still misread this disconnect leading to the misassumption that Leacock—rather than his character—is the source of his political drivel.
Veblen Economics
Although famous for his humorous writing on a wide variety of subjects, Leacock also penned many more serious works analyzing economics. He had studied under the tutelage of the man who remains the most precious and influent figure in American economics, Thorstein Veblen. It was Veblen who first crafted many of the theories of capitalism around the inevitable overtaking of the manufacturing economy by consumer and leisure economy. Veblen coined the phrase “pecuniary emulation” which over time transformed into the fundamental socio-economic element of capitalism upon which American society became the most powerful in the world: conspicuous consumption in an attempt to keep up with Joneses.
Veblen’s various critiques of capitalism populate much of Leacock’s writing, but one passage in particular encapsulates the degree to social mobility penetrates throughout the entire strata off financial well-being. In “Are the Rich Happy?” the narrator muses that based upon his experiences with trying to find an answer to this title question so far, “I have never met Mr. Carnegie. But I know that if I did he would tell me that he found it quite impossible to keep up with Mr. Rockefeller. No doubt Mr. Rockefeller has the same feeling.” Of note: Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were most probably at the time the two richest men in America.
Oblivious Self-Interest
Satire is a kind of humor that is particular victim-targeted. Of course, the argument can be made that humor requires a victim to produce the funny, but satire is humor that cannot exist without a victim as it s target. And the target of much of Leacock’s satirical arrows are his narrators, but just as often it is the narrator who does become the authorial alter ego through the victimizing takes place. “The Woman Problem” is, of course, an example of the narrator being the actual target of the joke and the humor is compounded by an essential quality: the utter oblivion to the absurdity of his perspective on the part of the narrator. At the other end of the spectrum is “The Golfomaniac.”
The first-person narrator of this short story is traveling on a train with a stranger he sees riding every day who decides on this occasion to initiate conversation. No matter what subject the narrator brings up, the other man immediately brings it around to the subject of golf. When at last the narrator gives up and gives in inquires if the other man ha played golf long, the true depth of his oblivion to that subject which interests to the exclusion of all else is revealed to be complete. In the latter case, the irony becomes much clearer and unambiguous. When it is the narrator who is the real target, however, the inattentive reader is also at risk for misinterpreting the story by becoming oblivious himself to the ironic component. The suggestion made by this link, of course, is a subtle expression of misanthropy: everybody is subject to being a victim of satire at some point because everybody is subject to being oblivious to their own self-interest.
