Exploitation of Humour in Kayode Ariyo's "The Misplaced Trust" and "A Bright New Day"

Abstract

The effect of humour in literature has of recent times attained a cynosure, carving out such a decent class for comedy. The knowledge of this nascent trend of development has not eluded budding creative writers who seem to be slugging it out with tragedy in literary works. Ariyo's meticulous and intelligent exploitation of this element has not left him out of the league of those who have used it to the latter. Abinitio, a general overview of humour: surrounding concepts and theories, drawing from available literatures, is given. Thereafter, the paper attempts to x-ray closely, how the concept of humour has been exploited in drama, specifically basing it on Ariyo's duo. It then goes on to analyze the effects of the model humour in Ariyo's ‘The Misplaced Trust’ and ‘A Bright New Day’; after which a conclusion is drawn on the concept of humour exploitation in the works. The paper further reveals how humour relieves tension, induces laughter and rest of mind which bring out the emotional, psychological and clinical state of people’s mind.