AFRICAN DRAMA JOE DE GRAFT: Sons and Daughters Discuss the use of irony in the play

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Joe de Graft's Sons and Daughters dramatises the clash between a father's ambitions for his children and the children's own longing to follow their artistic gifts. Irony is one of the play's chief devices, and de Graft uses it to expose the contradictions in the characters and to advance the play's argument about parental control and personal vocation.

Dramatic irony surrounding Lawyer Bonu. A central irony lies in the trust James Ofosu places in his friend Lawyer Bonu. James looks to Bonu as a respectable adviser and a model of the successful profession he wants his children to enter, yet the audience learns that Bonu is a corrupt and lecherous man who mismanages James's affairs and even makes advances toward Maanan. The very figure held up as a symbol of professional respectability is morally rotten, which ironically undercuts James's insistence that law and medicine are the only worthy paths.

Irony in James's ambitions for his children. It is ironic that James, who works and sacrifices out of love to secure a good future for his children, becomes the chief obstacle to their happiness. In trying to force Aaron into engineering and to steer his children away from art, he nearly drives them into misery and rebellion. His good intentions produce the opposite of what he desires, a classic irony of parenthood.

Irony of the artistic children. There is further irony in the children's talents. Maanan wishes to be a dancer and Aaron a painter, pursuits their father despises as unserious, yet these arts are shown to be genuine, valuable callings. What the father dismisses as worthless turns out to be the true worth of his children.

Irony of situation and outcome. The unfolding of events is itself ironic. The trusted guardian betrays the family, while the children the father doubts prove themselves worthy. The resolution, in which James comes to understand and accept his children's choices, reverses his earlier position, so that the stubborn father becomes the one who must learn.

Conclusion. Through dramatic irony, irony of character and irony of situation, de Graft exposes the folly of forcing children into careers against their nature and unmasks false respectability in the figure of Lawyer Bonu. Irony thus serves the play's central message that parents should guide but not dictate, and should respect their children's genuine gifts.