Situational Irony in O’Henry’s The Ransom of Red Chief and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

In the Ransom Of Red Chief, the main idea is that two men named Bill and Sam need money. So they go to a town and steal a child, who turns out to be a brat. there is a great deal of irony used. Although the child tortures Bill and Sam, the child loves them. This is shown in the Ransom Of red Chief in this short phrase ‘and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill’s leg.”( pg 25) Another use of irony is that they stole the child to get money. They are willing to pay money to get rid of him. it is shown in this phrase “ You bring Johnny home and pay two hundred fifty dollars in cash.” ( pg 24) The reason why the irony is so funny is because it goes completely against what they were going for

A good example of this element is in paragraph two which there is a conversation between a DMV officer and a test taker with the DMV officer telling the test taker to, “Ok, make a left turn here.” Then the test taker responds, “Whoops.” Then the DMV officer writes something on down and the test taker asks the officer, “Does that mean I failed the test?” and with the DMV officer responding, “Nah, she’s getting back up. You just clipped her.” This is an example of situational irony, as that is not what the audience expects the DMV officer to say, as when the test taker says, “Whoops.” the audience does not know why the test taker said that, and getting such a calmed responds to hitting something is shocking. This is meant to make the audience chuckle, as anyone who has taken the drivers test knows that hitting anyone while driving means that you have failed the test. Later in the story there is a “Reality-Based” Florida Driver’s Q&A that Dave Barry writes he has prepared, but the thing is that every answer is ridiculous and would never be actually said by anyone who can drive. For example the person asking the question asks, “I have noticed that some roads have more than one lane, What is the purpose of the extra lanes?” and the person answering these question responds, “To provide a place for you to swerve into while texting.” This is the first question in the “Reality-Based”

Irony creates humor in this story by stating how Red Chief hurts one of the men named Bill that kidnapped him. In paragraph 32 sentence I the author states “he put a red hot boiled potato down my back and mashed it with his foot.” Red chief thinks he is playing Indian that is why it is dramatic irony.

Irony is an expression. It is when words are used in a manner that their proposed meaning is different from the real sense of the words. This can additionally, end up in a completely different circumstance than what we may have expected, making it not as obvious as we may have anticipated. This is a distinguishment between the appearance and the authenticity, and this is the case in “The Story of an Hour”. A story in which, freedom of women from an overlying and strict marriage was common in 1890’s. However, there is deeper level of something surprising yet interesting that happens, but yet it was the exact opposite of what the reader would expect. This an example of situational irony. The characters and the readers seemed to be oblivious to the outcome, I know I was.

O.Henry uses situational irony to create humor and a slight bit of sympathy in “The Ransom Of Red Chief.” For example, the kidnapping victim in the story enjoys being kidnapped. When the boy is captured, he should be afraid,

“Invitation to Murder” written by Josh Pachter is established on situation irony. The text obtains copious examples of situational irony. The title of this contorted story accommodates situational irony. The title “Invitation to Murder” consists of situational irony; because the twelve men were invited to see a man who was about to die, instead they witnessed an assassination. They were invited to a murder rather than seeing a soon to be soon to be perished man. The title of the text is the most literal for of situational irony.

Have you ever thought it that being kidnapped would be lots of fun and an exciting thing? Well it was fun for one young boy named Johnny who also went by Red Chief . Two criminals that are named Bill and Sam and they go together like oil and water kidnapped Johnny hoping that his dad would pay lots of money to get his son back. Ohhhhh boy was that a mistake, Johnny was a ain and drove the 2 crazy. At the end of the chaos the ended up paying the dad $250 to return him, how ironic. O. Henry’s short story “Ransom of Red Chief” is a low level comity that uses comic situations to convey the idea that what goes around comes around which means if you do something wrong it will come back and get you.

“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O.Henry is an excessively entertaining story of two con men, Bill & Sam, who kidnap Johnny, son of a wealthy man in a small town, Alabama. The author, O. Henry surprises the readers using many techniques such as tone, foreshadowing & simile, to make this story a treat for readers of all ages.

“The Ransom of Red Chief” "The Ransom of Red Chief” is a short story by O. Henry and is also a Hallmark movie. It is an amusing story about a young, troublesome boy who is taking captive by two desperate kidnappers. The movie has many more major events happen because it had to be made a certain length. Due to the extra circumstances, it is fairly different from the short story. Even though the short story and the movie are based on the same story, in different forms, they are quite different.

Both Leo Tolstoy and Maupassant used situational irony in their short stories “The Necklace” and “How much land does a man need”. In “the Necklace”, Mrs. Loisel desired a glorious and luxurious night and dreamed of being a stunning woman in the event. For this purpose, she lent the diamond necklace way beyond her expense from her rich friend, assuming that everything would be fine if she returns the necklace back to her friend as soon as the event ends. Unfortunately, she did not predict that the necklace will be lost. Instead of enjoying all night and reliving it afterwards, she paid her beauty and worked as hard as possible for ten years. In “How much land does a man need”, Pahom, the plain peasant longed for a free and simple life. However,