Burlesque In Moni Mohsin's Poem

All these issues are approached by the author in a very subtle and a light hearted amusing manner. We can find very patent traces of the burlesque in this diary. The NKU educational web page defines it as, “A serious subject may be treated frivolously or a frivolous subject seriously. The essential quality that makes for burlesque is the discrepancy between subject matter and style. That is, a style ordinarily dignified may be used for nonsensical matter, or a style very nonsensical may be used to ridicule a weighty subject.” This definition fits in quite smoothly when we take a look at the language employed by the author. Moni Mohsin is deriding a society on the basis of their ignorance regarding politics which is a very serious and a grave

For instance, “charrhoing on my nerves” , “I’ve chup karaoed everybody” , “khilaowed-pilaowed are only some of the many localized phrases of English that she uses. This not only makes this comic but lends an interesting hue to Butterfly’s character. She makes grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, puts one word in place of the other and the result is a hilarious account. She mistakes her mother-in-law’s angina attack with a vagina attack, spells stupid as “stuppid” , mispronounces divorce which is evident through the spellings “die-vorced” and uses the word “infiltration” in place of inflation. This use of language is a great achievement by the author in an attempt to influence the readers. Peter Dixon in his book titled, The World of Pope’s Satire says, “The wit resides in the transparency, in our seeing, quite unmistakably, the courageous and outspoken satirist through the timorous words.” Dr. Fawzia Afzal in her play “Jihad Against Violence” takes up the same mode of this bilingual language and also explores similar themes related to political happenings in her own unique

Satisfying the conscience by giving justifications of our ignorance will not help the dire situation prevailing in the current state of the affairs. Lack of interest is not a valid reason for not taking things somberly for our daily lives are directly or indirectly relying on the ongoing political beliefs in our country. What happens inside the walls of assemblies and governmental institutions affects our lives spent within the walls of our houses. Policies being agreed upon, bills being passed and peace treaties being signed determine the value of an individual in the eyes of our The writer throws light on the fact paper how people trivialize and belittle happenings of such great magnitude. Butterfly shows exaggerated reactions on petty occurrences and indifferent reactions on significant incidents. This is typical of burlesque comedies. This makes this diary full of elements of political satire and the notes of sarcasm are toned down through an exceptional use of drollness and hilarity