Christopher Morley Laziness

Could one argue that laziness is a favorable quality in humans? At first glance, Christopher Morley seems to do just that. Yet, upon further inspection, his argument is a satirical one whose purpose is to show the negative qualities of the very thing that he appears to be defending.

The essay begins jokingly with the sentence, “Today we rather intended to write an essay on Laziness, but were too indolent to do so,” setting the satirical tone for the rest of the paper. This jesting tone continues into the next sentence when Morley states “The sort of thing we had in mind to write would have been exceedingly persuasive,” displaying the whole essay as what “they” would have written if they did write an essay on laziness, as well as using “exceedingly”

Morley continues with his joking tone in the next paragraph, where he, most likely intentionally to add to his satirical tone, “mistakes” Germany’s aggressiveness in World War One with a lack of laziness and calls the rest of antebellum Europe thoroughly “indolent” and “lazy,” when, in fact, the almost exact opposite is true, as Europe at that time was rather industrious. Later, Morley writes that “the lazy man does not stand in the way of progress,” voluntarily ignoring the fact that if everyone committed to laziness, then there would be no progress, which is obviously a bad thing. Morley ends the essay just as he began it; jestingly. He says that “writing on this congenial topic has roused us up to quite a pitch of enthusiasm and energy,” which not only features the word “congenial”, a word that is not expected to be included in an essay which endorses laziness, but also is a final illustration of Morley’s satirical tone in the paper, as writing an essay on laziness is not expected to be an activity that drives one away from the very subject of the