Which sentence in this passage from Herman Melville’s short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is an example of verbal irony

Question

Bartleby, the Scrivener

by Herman Melville (excerpt)

I seldom lose my temper, much more seldom indulge in dangerous indignation at wrongs and outrages, but I must be permitted to be rash here and declare that I consider the sudden and violent abrogation of the office of Master in Chancery, by the new Constitution, as a premature act, inasmuch as I had counted upon a life lease of the profits, whereas I only received those of a few short years. But this is by the way.

My chambers were upstairs at No.___ Wall Street. At one end they looked upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious skylight shaft, penetrating the building from top to bottom. This view might have been considered rather tame than otherwise, deficient in what landscape painters call "life." But, if so, the view from the other end of my chambers offered at least a contrast, if nothing more. In that direction, my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade, which wall required no spyglass to bring out its lurking beauties, but, for the benefit of all nearsighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten feet of my windowpanes. Owing to the great height of the surrounding buildings, and my chambers’ being on the second floor, the interval between this wall and mine not a little resembled a huge square cistern.

Answer 1

To discover verbal irony in a passage, look for sentences where the surface meaning of the sentence seems different than what the author is implying. Or just look for an idea that seems different from normal. For instance if the writer keeps saying that a person is kind and compassionate, but then shows that person saying mean things repeatedly, that might be an example of verbal irony. Or look for anything that's really exaggerated. That's another way to use verbal irony. In this passage of Bartleby, you might want to look for a sentence where some of the words in a description don't seem to match the rest of the description. Remember verbal irony is a writer's way to be somewhat sarcastic in order to bring attention to a character or a situation. I guess you could say it's a snarky kind of humor where the author says the opposite of what he/she means. Let me know how it goes!