Humor in E.M. Forster’s “My Wood” E. M. Forster in his essay “My Wood” writes about a serious subject that it is clear from his writing he believes strongly in—he is writing about the negative affect of materialism on society and on the individual. Yet instead of decrying materialism, as bad and making people with a lot of material processions feel bad, he writes humorously. The whole essay is enjoyable to read, which is a compelling way to make a point. He uses a variety of humorous techniques that make his essay enjoyable to read. These techniques will be pointed out in this essay.
Readers are more inclined to listen to a writer that is funny and enjoyable to read than they are one who is dry and who is criticizing. His essay was first published in 1926, when The British had a stake in India as a colony. He introduces his essay by jabbing at both British rule in India and Americas who read his book on the subject freely since they assumed that they would never have similar trouble. Because of this, the author says that he purchased a wood, which is a pretty big purchase, but then he downplays the wood by saying that it has few trees and “it is intersected, blast it, by a pubic footpath” (Forster, 1). In this case he uses the humorous technique of downplaying what initial must have shocked many readers, that he bought a woods for himself, and this presents this information in a funny way.
He maintains a friendly and intimate tone with a reader by using funny interjections, such as when he writes about the public footpath through his woods by saying, “blast it.” In his essay he broaches the subject of materialism by studying in the effect his woods he has purchased has had psychologically on him. These descriptions are quite funny, such as when he says that owning the woods, in the first place, made him feel “heavy.”
A lot of his humor comes as asides within the essay. He mentions things that have little to do with his thesis—the psychological affect that owning a wood has had on him—but are funny in their own right, and made funnier since the reader realizes that they do not belong there but exist because of the stream of consciousness that Forster writes in in much of his essay. Like when he talks about having a lot of furniture and how it requires a lot of maintenance and how this should make a person, “think twice before you accept an invitation to dinner or go for a bathe in the Jordan” (Forster, 1).
He also includes a lot of “fat jokes” be he makes this implicit and comical by not referring to their girth directly, but by saying that wealth produced “men of weight.” This term is used to describe rich and powerful, but he writes that it produces men of weight since they get to eat lot—so he is reversing the conventional role of this term for a humorous end.
There is irony in the narrator’s over-the-top sense of ownership, like calling a bird in his wood, “my bird.” But the bird certainly has no notion of belonging to anyone, so by overstatement Forster is satirizing the ridiculous mentalities that go into ownership for them—the irrational sense of passion. But rather than attack others, this is made humorous since Forster is putting these sentiments into his own voice with a wink and a nod to the reader. The speaker is pleased at seeing the bird, but writes that the bird was “not equally pleased” (Forster, 1). Since the reader is in on the joke that this is how birds behave, but the speaker writes in a hyperbolic tone, this enhances the humor of the essay. He writes “ignoring the relation between us” as if the bird was privy to such human notions of ownership that the speaker blows out of proportion with such proclamations since, the bird was “under the belief that it belonged to itself” (Forster, 1). The bird flies away, and the hyperbole of ownership rights continue when the bird flies to Mrs. Henessy’s property, who is now the owner of the bird. His line of thinking here is hilarious, as he plots to repatriate the bird to his property, “Mrs. Henessy out, I dared not murder her, and limitations of this sort beset me on every side” (Forster, 1).
Forster writes that owning a wood gives him the desire to do something, to be productive with his property. Yet these impulses are rater arbitrary since on one hand he wants to cut down trees, and on the other hand he wants to cut them down. This dichotomy of decision is not laugh out loud funny, but entertaining to read Forster take on the voice of the rich who have much, but often fit the perception of being listless and not really knowing to do with themselves, yet feeling compelled to do something. He writes that they are both empty and pretentious, and the reader then suspects that he is being aware that he is thinking ludicrous thoughts, but au contraire, he then tells the reader that they are empty and pretentious only because they “are not honest movements towards money.”
His fourth complaint is about there being a public footpath through his audience. This also shows the ludicrousness of ownership where a person would rather have something—like his wood—all to himself than share it with other people. While the writer knows that the reader knows he is kidding, he does not “break character” once in the essay, so is actually able to use humor to argue the opposite of how he actually feels yet still have the reader follow and understand the larger point he is making within the text.
While humorous, there is a philosophical point to E. M. Forster’s essay. It leads the reader to question what can really be owned, and how ownership in one sense is a rather ridiculous proposition. A person cannot own the sky, like a person cannot really say that he owns a bird just because he is on his property. Yet materialism and greed can lead people to some ludicrous thoughts. That is the point of Forster’s essay, and he chooses humor to make it. By using humor, he makes his essay appeal to a wide audience, and not just those who agree with him on the silly, arbitrary nature of wealth and what it spurns people to consider.
Work Cited:
Forster, E. M. “My Wood” Essay Writing for Canadian Students 1926
