L ITERARY D EVICES
I N T HIS P RESENTATION
We will address:
Irony (the use of tone to communicate meaning)
Litotes (understatement)
Hyperbole (Overstatement)
T HE T EXT

Taken From Monty Python’s Holy Grail
ARTHUR: I have no quarrel with you, good Sir knight, but I must cross this bridge. BLACK KNIGHT: Then you shall die. ARTHUR: I command you as King of the Britons to stand aside! BLACK KNIGHT: I move for no man. ARTHUR: So be it! [hah] [parry thrust] [ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT's left arm off] ARTHUR: Now stand aside, worthy adversary. BLACK KNIGHT: 'Tis but a scratch. ARTHUR: A scratch? Your arm's off! BLACK KNIGHT: No, it isn't.
ARTHUR: Well, what's that then? BLACK KNIGHT: I've had worse. ARTHUR: You liar! BLACK KNIGHT: Come on you pansy! [hah] [parry thrust] [ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT's right arm off] ARTHUR: Victory is mine! Here’s a link to the youtube video
I RONY D EFINITION
Irony:
a figure of speech which involves the reader or hearer understanding from the tone of the writing or utterance that what is meant is not what is said. The device was known to the Greeks who used the term eironeia to denote dissimulation achieved through deliberate understatement.
http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=
1255
I. I N T HE B LACK K NIGHT
Irony appears in this sketch on several levels (many other devices contribute to the irony):
1.
As Irony depends on tone, it is important to establish the tone of this work:
1.
The work is a comedy. Arthur is doesn’t have a horse and is being followed around by a guy with coconuts to make horse sounds.
2.
Nobody takes him seriously
3.
When he describes himself as the “King of the Britons” it sounds ridiculous. 4.
Likewise the statement “I am victorious!!” after cutting off the arms of someone who makes statements like “it’s only a flesh wound” seems ridiculous.
T HE N ET E FFECT
In this sketch and in much of their work, Monty Python layered irony onto irony. The overall effect was to turn what the British often portray as a sort of “revered” history and mythology into something that was petty, dumb, small and ultimately overblown and silly.
All of the irony ultimately knocked this history down a peg or two so that people could laugh at it.
S UB -D EVICES : L ITOTES
Litotes:
From the Greek litos meaning ‘small’, the rhetorical use of understatement (diminishing) to imply the opposite. For example, “He was not a little concerned at the loss of his fortune.”
http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec
=true&UID=668
L ITOTES E XAMPLE
ARTHUR: Victory is mine! [kneeling] We thank thee Lord, that in thy merc‐ [hah] BLACK KNIGHT: Come on then. ARTHUR: What? BLACK KNIGHT: Have at you! ARTHUR: You are indeed brave, Sir knight, but the fight is mine. BLACK KNIGHT: Oh, had enough, eh? ARTHUR: Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left. BLACK KNIGHT: Yes I have. ARTHUR: Look! (He points to the black knights arms which are now on the ground)
BLACK KNIGHT: Just a flesh wound. I T ’ S J UST
A
F LESH W OUND ?
This is an extreme example of understatement which depends in part on his stating the truth, i.e. it is a flesh wound (a massive one). But even at that a flesh wound can hardly be called, “just” a flesh wound. Massive understatement.
H OW D OES I T W ORK
This statement plays a bit with the tradition of the romantic hero that persists to the death. (although this tradition is allowed to play out in a somewhat silly manner here)
He plays down the fact that he has no arms….the effect here is silly, and makes this character (along with everyone else) seem ridiculous, as he doesn’t seem to get the obvious.
S UB -D EVICE : H YPERBOLE
Hyperbole:
Overstatement or exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, as when the little boy says “Hey Dad there's thousands of cats in our yard!” As literary devices, hyperbole, and its opposite understatement (litotes), are much used in comedy and satire.
http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true
&UID=527
… MUCH USED IN C OMEDY
(the black knight is now missing both of his arms, and one leg)
BLACK KNIGHT: Right, I'll do you for that! ARTHUR: You'll what? BLACK KNIGHT: Come 'ere! ARTHUR: What are you going to do, bleed on me? (irony…clearly bleeding on Arthur is going to achieve nothing but it’s about all the Black knight now has left: Arthur’s tone indicates that he doesn’t take the Black Knight seriously at all.)
BLACK KNIGHT: I'm invincible! ARTHUR: You're a loony. BLACK KNIGHT: The Black Knight always triumphs! H YPERBOLE
In any “normal” world the black knight would be dead right now. Instead he’s making statements like (total hyperbole):
“I’m invincible”
And
“The Black Knight always triumphs.” Clearly, about the last thing he has done is “triumph.”
T HE E FFECT
Once again, the overall effect is to point out the silliness of some elements of the romatic heroic epic.
Using these devices turns the romantic hero into a clown who doesn’t know when to quit, who avoids the obvious using hyperbole (I am invincible) and litotes (it’s only a flesh wound). Using a these devices, along with irony Monty Python makes a joke of the Arthurian tradition and it’s archetypes (characters like the selfless knight, the king, and even the peasant in other parts of this movie).