Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.
Surprise can lead to happiness, or surprise can lead to depression. Situational irony is when somebody expects something to go one way, but it really happens the exact opposite way. Situational irony can also change the reader’s mind in a way they will never believe. In “The Ransom of Red Chief,” O. Henry uses situational irony to amuse the reader. In “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant uses a feeling of compassion for the short story. In “The Ransom of Red Chief” and in “The Necklace,” O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, and any author can use situational irony to affect the reader's emotions.
Mostly on every story, a person, place, or even an object can be described or represented more than what it actually really is. It’s just trying explain more than what the author is trying to get across the story, but it also makes you think twice about what it’s trying to say to show through the main idea. There is all sorts of symbols like the multiply sign is used to show that they double the number of what they’re trying to solve. Colors may also be used to show symbolism like they can make you label certain things and it symbolizes the object you labeled with the color.
Situational irony is used in both O’Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant but the effect of the techniques on the tone of each story is very different. In O’Henry’s story, the protagonist, Red Chief, is being kidnapped by two criminals, Bill and Sam. There are many ironic events that occur in the story. For example, the reader expects Red Chief to want to go back home to his family but instead, he is having the time of his life. As hard as Bill tries, he cannot even send him home. Bill utters to Sam, “‘I showed him the road to Summit and kicked him about eight feet nearer there at one kick’” (6). This is comical because it is using a literary technique known as slapstick comedy. The reader can imagine Bill swinging his leg and kicking Red Chief all the way back to Summit. Another example of situational irony in the story is that the reader would expect that Red Chief to be scared but what is actually happening is that Bill is terrified. While speaking with Sam, Bill complains about Red chief yet again, “‘I’ve stood by you without batting an eye ...
The situational irony is that his name was on the list and louis sees his name and tell the news to Mrs. Mallard’s sister. She locks herself in room and her sister think she is in pain but she was dreaming of her life is going to be great without her husband. The dramatic irony is her death in the end. As a reader I knew she dies because of the shock seeing her husband but the characters think she died because of joy. She was happy that he died and she wishes for a long life but sadly she dies.
Situational Irony is defined as the natural way that actions often take place in a way that was unintended. In the famous play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, an abundant amount of irony arises throughout the play. A clearly seen ironic event was Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's strong desire to become royal. After Macbeth hears his prophecy of becoming king, he and Lady Macbeth immediately turn hungry for the crown. Little did they know the catastrophic madness that they were getting themselves into.
Dramatic Irony is when the irony that is in speeches or text is expressed through a workable structure. The audience knows what’s happening, but the character themselves do not know what’s happening or what’s going to happen. The character is unaware that this is happening, but the readers know how this story will lay out. In the story “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton, Hannah is a young girl who loves to play piano. Hannah’s aunt, Tante Rose knows how to play so she says that she will teach Hannah how to play but she must obey her aunts rules. One of her aunts rules is that Hannah cannot ride a bike. Hannah has never ridden a bike and all of her friends have, and Hannah wants to ride a bike. The author uses dramatic irony because the readers know that Hannah will ride a bike at some point in her life. The author makes the dramatic irony important because if the author didn’t tell us that Hannah has never ridden a bike, we wouldn’t know why she would want to ride one so badly. This is dramatic irony instead or irony because irony is when the readers expect something to happen and it turns out the opposite way. In this story the reader knows that Hannah will ride the bike and Hannah ends up riding the bike at the end of the story. If Hannah didn’t ride the bike the story would not have ended like it did and then the author would have used ironically. In the short story “The Possibility Of Evil” by Shirley Jackson,
Westwood, M. "What are examples of verbal, Situational and Dramatic Irony in "The Story of an Hour." Enotes. E-notes, Inc., 30. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Marriage is just what people do. They find a nice suitable mate and they get the government involved to make it official and contractual. Love doesn 't really exist unless it 's on paper, right? Many people jump into marrying someone simply because they like the idea of marriage at the time or because it is the socially acceptable thing to do be doing and not because they actually want a life-long commitment. For this reason, many marriages fail or one of the spouses ends up being terminally miserable as in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. Social pressure, especially at the time this story took place, to get married is quite high because no one wants to end up like the crazy cat lady that never settled down. Effective uses of irony in
William Shakespeare, the author of Romeo and Juliet used irony very well. Juliet wants to be with her new secret husband, where as many have told her she has to marry. She does not want to do so, she and the Friar decide that she will fake her death and send a letter to her husband, Romeo, to tell him to get her away from Verona, Italy. Ironically, Romeo does not get this letter and thinks that she really is dead. He then kills himself to be with her. When Juliet awakes from the forged demise, she establishes that Romeo is dead and ironica...