Understatement
The trek of the narrative inexorably leads to a pretty dark place with tragic revelations. However, this story is usually considered a very funny comedy. Too much darkness spoils the light, so expect a healthy helping of individual moments of ironic humor at the expense of Miles, much of which comes at the understated hands of Morgan. Such as his advice to the young writer just after the young writer has backed over in the tractor:
“Farm’s a dangerous place. Put that in yer—play.”
Hyperbole
It is obvious that Morgan quickly has Miles’ number when within the space of minutes he can take the irony from understatement to overstatement at his expense without the young man revealing even the slightest indication of understanding that the older man is not actually painting a sincere portrait of life down on the farm:
“Hardly a day goes by on most farms when something or somebody doesn’t get run over.”
Irony Is a Dish Served Cold
Eventually, Miles does recognize the ride that Morgan has been taking him throughout the story as he either plots a little soft-serve revenge. In the heat of the emotion upheaval that comes near the end of the play, Miles feverishly relates a tale of panic involving the milking machine breaking and his being forced to milk the cows by hand in order to offer them the relief from the anxiety that Morgan has convinced him they feel. After being appropriately impressed that the city boy actually hand-milked nine cows all by himself, he asks the logical question: “What’d you do when the bucket got full?” At the time, the response is merely funny. Only a little later upon Morgan’s discovery of a cooler filled with milk does the irony become apparent:
“You’re supposed to use a bucket?”
The Notebook
The last thing Miles does before leaving the farm is to hand the notebook containing all his writing and acting ideas gained from the experience of meeting Morgan and Angus over to them with the indication that he no longer plans to exploit their story for the purpose of drama. The irony here is layered. The most obvious is the irony of going through all he has for absolutely no purpose or gain. Beneath that is the ironic expectation that simply because he hands over what has been written down means he can’t simply rewrite it from memory, effectively making the gesture meaningless. A postmodern essence of irony exists in the natural inclination to believe that the events just witnessed on stage likely drew inspiration from an actual real-life analogue which would mean the play is dramatic presentation of the exploitation of true story that ultimately sends the message that writers should not exploit the emotional pain of others as fodder for entertainment.
The Irony of Pointlessness?
Underlying everything is the central irony at stake from a literary standpoint. While light-hearted in its presentation for the most the play, everything builds to the profoundly dramatic revelation of the tragic truth about the past which has led to the unusual dynamic tension at work in the present state of the relationship between Morgan and Angus. The irony is painful to consider, but impossible not to acknowledge. Morgan could have continued maintaining the lie or tamped down on the extent of the revelations of the past since the brain injury suffered by Angus makes it highly like—statistically speaking—that by the time he wakes up the next day, he won’t have remembered either story and everything goes back to square one.
