Analysis Of Woody Allen's The Kugelmass Episode

Woody Allen’s “The Kugelmass Episode”, a short story written in 1977, is about a humanities professor at City College that is unhappily married for the second time and suffocated in alimony to his first wife. Like the Flaubert novel, Madame Bovary, Allen's short story examines the inefficacy of the hunt for personal happiness. Written as a farce with the addition of satire, Woody Allen's story, similar to Madame Bovary, is formulated around the feeling of discontentment with life. As the story progresses, the more Professor Sidney Kugelmass (the protagonist) reaches for something enticing and beyond his reach, the more he becomes unhappy. The theme of being discontent with life's offerings is manifested through the utilization of verbal irony, dramatic irony and situational irony.

"The Kugelmass Episode" is a farce; it uses word play and unlikely situations to create humor. It can also be said that this story is a satire, a type of comedy or drama that censures one's flaws or social expectations. For example, the story satirizes Professor Sidney Kugelmass as an ordinary Jewish man that is going through a midlife crisis. In order to overcome a satire of the midlife crisis, Kugelmass departs to a different world due to escape his depressing life. “Kugelmass was gone. At the same moment, he appeared in the bedroom of Charles and Emma Bovary's house at Yonville.” (Paragraph 50). Instead of trying to find meaning and self-improving his life, Kugelmass goes on an endeavor to satisfy his urges.

Verbal irony is an effective literary element that the author uses to exemplify messages or situations in this story. For example, the professor’s analyst tells him, “After all, I’m an analyst, not a magician” (Paragraph 9). Kugelmass's analyst is...

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...int of view. For example, as Kugelmass is enjoying his affair with Emma Bovary, the readers of Madame Bovary are finding it difficult to understand where a Jewish, middle-aged man came from. “I cannot get my mind on this...and now she's gone from the book.” (Paragraph 95). The readers of Allen's short story understand what is happening through the context of Kugelmass's relationship and desires however, the characters that are reading Madame Bovary do not.

Both characters in the short story, Emma Bovary and Professor Sidney Kugelmass are similar in that they always expect more in life and are never content with what they already have. The discontentment that these two characters portray only brings depression and unmanageable obstacles into their lives. The central message of Allen’s farce is significant and clearly understood through his use of all types of irony.