[Vocabulary] The wit thereof

[Cynthia Garett]

[h=1]Hello,

I would like to know what "the wit thereof he but dimly discerns" in this Mody Dick excerpt: "There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own".[/h]Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

He barely understands the wit of the practical joke. "Thereof" refers back to the vast practical joke so "... a vast practical joke, the wit thereof ..." is "a vast practical joke and the wit contained in it".

So sometimes this man thinks that the whole universe is a big practical joke but he can't really see what's funny about it and suspects that the joke is on him (he is the "victim" of the joke).

 

[BobK]

:up: Vocabulary note: 'the victim of a joke' is often called 'the butt of the joke'.

b