The Monkeys Broke the Lamp Hypocrisy is like hiding behind a piece of clear glass during hide and seek. In “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahri and “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, the authors use dramatic and situational irony. Dramatic irony appears evident in “Interpreter of Maladies” when Mrs. Das reveals to Mr. Kapasi, her taxi driver in India, that Mr. Das does not father one of her sons. In “The Doll’s House”, Kezia longs to show her dollhouse to the scapegoated Kelveys. Her Aunt Beryl ties the situational irony conflict into the story by having an affair and rebuking Kezia for inviting the Kelveys. Through the use of situational and dramatic irony, Lahri and Mansfield suggest those who judge and show a lack of interest often harbor the darkest secrets. …show more content…
Although ungrateful, Aunt Beryl takes part in an affair; she feels no qualms about criticizing others. After Aunt Beryl “… frightened those little rats of Kelveys and given Kezia a good scolding, her heart felt lighter” (Mansfield 5). The situational irony lies in Aunt Beryl's aptitude to condemn the innocent when she has a skeleton in her closet. However, the Kelveys, particularly Else, show innocence in the midst of a storm of hatred. Else still sees the little good in society: “‘I seen the little lamp,’ she said, softly” (Mansfield 5). The lamp symbolizes the single flame of light shining even when the darkness attempts to extinguish it. Else prevails and remains uncorrupted from Aunt Beryl’s
Weldon’s story is packed with irony. The author uses situational irony when the narrator says “He was supervising my thesis on varying concepts of morality
Another interesting factor about this story is the irony and tone in this story and how it adds toward each character.
An element of literature in The Interlopers is situational irony. Irony is the contrast between an actual outcome and what the reader or the characters expect. Irony is important to this story because a major family conflict would have ended, but an event occurred and changed that. Irony is in the interlopers when the wolves came and ate the men. When Georg says, “I will be your friend” it was major irony (Saki 309). The whole story the reader thought that the two men would surely kill each other when they met, but they made up. Also, when Ulrich said “Wolves” there is a turning point fueled by Irony (Saki 310).
...hese characters we better and more pure, bad things would might have not happened to them like they did. In this situation, cosmic irony is used to show how someone’s fate can be decided by the life decisions they make. It was only destiny that brought the Misfit and the family together.
Irony is something that seems to directly contradict a precedent set before it, and is seen everywhere in the world, often having dismal consequences, but it also serves to point out that there is something wrong with the current state of affairs. Briony Tallis, a character from Ian McEwan’s Atonement, is also a victim of this type of irony, as her undeveloped system of justice results in a great injustice; however, this injustice serves to improve her understanding of justice as she realizes her wrongdoings and attempts to atone for them meanwhile her life is used by McEwan to send parables to his audience that prove to enrich his novel. The exposition of Briony as a smart, but naive little girl influences her poor judgement, and helps relay
I cried all night, but Fred said it wasn’t a bit of use and to go to sleep, because the whole thing was just a sort of coincidence—you know: can’t do nothin’ about it” ( ). In the aforementioned line, Leota, a beautician laments her apparent misfortune at not recognizing and earning reward money for a rapist in a nearby freak show. In an absolute display of jealousy, Leota transitions from an stance of admiration of her new ward, Mrs. Pike, to loathing. It is this attitude of disdain that permeates throughout the entirety of this short text. We see this attitude exhibited in Mrs. Fletcher, the patron who has a tense, sometimes friendly, but more often than not curt banter with the beautician. She chastises, ‘“What gall!…Mrs. Pike!,’” upon learning about Mrs. Pike’s insight regarding her pregnancy. A few lines down and Mrs. Fletcher further expresses her attitude of distaste, this time aiming at the nearby freak show that has inhabited the town and the ladies’ conversation: “‘No, I despise freaks,’ declared Mrs. Fletcher” ( ). Again, it appears that jealousy and bitterness informs the tone of the dialogue and helps to further characterize the unappealing and rather appalling character of these
Dramatic irony is used through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s return. His death had brought her such great sorrow but upon his return she died. Her death then created sorrier bringing in the irony of the beginning of the story where it was said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart was bad and she was tried not to be stressed.
the play, it seemed that Othello was the only one who didn't know the truth.
In conclusion, many examples are given throughout the novel that exemplifies all three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. There are many more examples, like Bernard wanting attention and John’s suicide. His suicide can be an example of irony, with the reader hoping that John (the revolutionist) might succeed, but John taking his own life. Irony plays a huge role in the book, pointing out that no society can be perfect and that some laws are broken by the creators themselves.
The irony at the end of this story is very interesting. O’ Connor forces the reader to wonder which characters are “Good Men”, perhaps by the end of the story she is trying to convey two points: first, that a discerning “Good Man” can be very difficult, second that a manipulative, self centered, and hollow character: The Grandmother is a devastating way to be, both for a person individually and for everyone else around them. The reader is at least left wondering if some or all of the clues to irony I provided apply in some way to the outcome of this story.
Irony – The is situational irony in that Julian acts the way he does to spite his mother and he is glad to see her get “taught a lesson,” but actually this is what kills her.
As a reader of the section “A Country Letter”, I interpreted the lamp to represent life, hope, and security.
There are so many examples of situational irony that is clear throughout these stories Mr. Mallard being dead, Mama finally realizes that Maggie deserves the quilts because she understands her heritage better than Dee, Mathilde finding out she worked her whole life for nothing, and when Mr. Graves tells Tessie that Eva draws with her husband's family, Tessie is angry. Dramatic irony is everywhere as well. Louise dies from the shock of seeing her husband who is supposed to be dead and when Dee never wanted anything to do with her heritage until somebody was impressed by it.
Irony is the most significant technique that the author uses in this story. It shows the contrast between Louise's expectation and her limited reality. It also gives the story more twists and turns. The reader knows Louise's desire. However, her sister and her friend do not know.
" Conflict intensifies as Kezia remains the odd ball. The appreciation of the lamp is a metaphor for the actions to come. Kezia likes the lamp because she does not know any better. Thus, she decides to befriend the Kelveys because she doesn't see anything wrong in doing so.