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Irony in Susanna Clarke’s story “John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner”



Irony plays a key role in Susanna Clarke’s story “John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner” as it not only makes the actions happen in the story, it creates humor as well. Irony, in simple words, is a gap—a gap between expectation and the reality. In the story, this gap creates tension among characters, especially two major characters: the Charcoal Burner and the Raven King. However, this conflict is humorous one (though irony does not necessarily always create humor, it is a serious tool used by dramatists like Sophocles and Shakespeare).   

The most ironic part of the story is the ignorance of both the major characters about each other’s identity. For the Charcoal Burner, the Raven King is simply “a black man” (216) who changes his pig into a salmon.  He is angry with this man also because he does not speak with him.  The Charcoal Burner goes to the priest and makes a plea for giving punishment for his “wicked enemy” (217). These episodes are ironic and humorous because there is an incongruity between what he imagines the man to be and what he is. Readers, on the other hands, know the identity and the reality of each characters. It creates dramatic irony. This ironic atmosphere persists until the end of the story because the story ends with neither character knowing each other’s identity.  

Irony and humor contribute to fantasy consolation and eucatastrophe in the story because the Charcoal Burner gets compensated for his loss and damage by the Raven King because Uskglass ironically thinks that the man is not a common person but a person with magical power. The last paragraph mentions that he abstained from going for hunting to Cumbria until “he was sure that the Charcoal Burner was dead”.  It is doubly ironic: first of all, a King fearing a common person is ironic and second of all, he is still mistaken about the true identity of the Charcoal Burner. 

 Irony contributes in consolation because the ending becomes bitter sweet experience: sweet for the Charcoal Burner and slightly bitter for the Raven King.  Had the King known that the person he was thinking to have magical power was a common person and the magical power was being practiced by the priests from Heaven, the situation would have been different, and the story would have taken different turn.

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