Short Story Situational Irony Essay - 867 Words

English 102 Situational irony is when a character’s actions have the opposite of their intended effect. There are clear instances of situational irony found in the short stories, â€Å"Prodigal Son†, â€Å"The Gift of the Magi†, and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†. All of these stories have characters that found themselves in an unexpected circumstance. The biblical story, â€Å"Prodigal Son†, is about a father who plans to leave his sons an inheritance after he dies but his younger son asked his father for his share of the fortune early. The son was granted his money but knew he could no longer claim his family as his own. The young man moves to another country and lives a lavish lifestyle that only lasted a short while. He soon ran out of money†¦show more content†¦When she opened her gift from Jim, she was surprised with a set of beautiful combs she has had her eye on for a very long time. Jim had to sell his watch to buy her the combs, so he had no wat ch for his chain and she had no hair for her combs. The presents they bought for each other showed love and sacrifice and that’s better than any gift money could buy. The situational irony is that Della was selfless in giving up what she loved in order to give Jim something to better his most precious belonging just to find out he did the same for her. In the short story, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, there is a woman who’s physician husband, John, rented a house for the summer and puts her in an upstairs room so she can recover from temporary nervous depression. John believes if she does not strain herself with work she will rest up and be back to her normal, healthy self. His wife did not agree with this tactic and although she was not happy in the room she was forced to stay in all day, she stayed. She noticed her temper had gotten much worse with John as time went on and she struggled to maintain her happiness being stuck in the room with the ugly yellow wall paper. After weeks of being cooped up in the dingy room, she started to see things. She saw someone with a broken neck and bulbous eye that crawled all over the walls. She was upShow MoreRelatedThe Lottery Short Story847 Words   |  4 PagesIrony is defined as using language that often signifies the opposite of what is meant, and it is usually used for emphatic or humorous effect. In literature, there are three main types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. â€Å"The Lottery† is a short story written by Shirley Jackson, and it is a great example of a story that uses all three types. Parts of the story and the whole story itself use irony to confuse but entertain the reader. Situational irony is defined as something happening thatRead MoreTheme Of Irony In Oedipus The King827 Words   |  4 Pagespresence of irony in â€Å"Myth† by Muriel Rukeyser, â€Å"My Oedipus Complex† by Frank O’Connor, and â€Å"Oedipus the King† by Sophocles link these three literary pieces together. However, each of the works utilize different forms of irony in different levels to specifically present their message. In Rukeyser’s short poem, the narrator uses verbal irony through Oedipus’ conversation with the Sphinx and dramatic irony through Oedipus’ shorthanded conclusions. O’Connor uses situational irony in his short story by presentingRead MoreIrony In The Cask Of Amontillado Analysis852 Words   |  4 PagesUse of Irony in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† Set in the gloomy, damp catacombs of the Montresor home, â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is anything but a pleasant tale of friends conversing over wine, yet the humor added by irony would suggest otherwise. Irony is used in everyday language when someone says something the exact opposite way they mean it. This short story displays the complex way irony can be used to further the plot of a story by adding twists in the plot the audience did not see coming. EdgarRead MoreIrony : The Story Of An Hour935 Words   |  4 PagesIrony is the â€Å"literacy language or literary style in which actions, events, or words are the opposite of what readers expect† (McWhorter 986). In the short story, â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† the author shows irony throughout to create a dramatic effect. She starts the story off with talking about a woman, Mrs. Mallard who has just lost her husband in a railroad accident. Throughout the start of the story, many details are revealed throug h dramatic iron and situational irony. Kate Chopin adds mysteryRead MoreYoung Goodman Brown And A Cask Of Amontillado Analysis1110 Words   |  5 PagesWithin the two short stories, irony scatters, adding to the overall grim theme. Although they use the same 3 types of irony, the authors use them differently and similarly at the same time. In Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and A Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, there are many examples of situational irony that are used comparably in both texts. Dramatic irony is the type of irony that informs the reader of a certain fact that one or more characters in the story may not know. ThisRead MoreSituational and Dramatic Irony in Story of an Hour, Everyday Use, The Necklace, and The Lottery844 Words   |  4 PagesIn the stories â€Å"Story of an Hour†, â€Å"Everyday Use†, â€Å"The Necklace†, and â€Å"The Lottery† it is evident that irony was quite a large part of the short story. There is situational irony, which is when the situation turns out differently than expected. Also, dramatic irony is present, which is when you as a reader knows more than the character. The authors seem to base their whole story around irony to surprise their readers. There are a couple of examples of situational irony that is apparent throughoutRead MoreAnalysis Of Kate Chopin s Story Of An Hour993 Words   |  4 PagesIrony in â€Å"Story of an Hour† In Kate Chopin’s short story â€Å"Story of an Hour†, Irony, or the expression of meaning that traditionally indicates the contrary of what is expected, plays a huge role in deciphering the theme and underlying motifs of the story that takes the reader through the hour of Mrs. Mallard’s life after her husband supposedly dies. Through Irony, Kate Chopin effectively portrays the forbidden joy of independence (SparkNotes Editors). The theme is portrayed by the author’s emphasisRead MoreAn Analysis of Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour850 Words   |  4 PagesThe short story â€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin is a famous piece of literature widely recognized throughout the entire literary world. It is about how a wife, Louise Mallard, hears the news of her husbands horrible train accident which ultimately led to his untimely death. The plot twist of this short story is that, in fact, her husband, Brently Mallard, is very much alive and comes h ome as if nothing happened. Mr. Mallard was not around the area of the accident or even knows of its occurrenceRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of `` The Yellow Wallpaper `` By Charlotte Perkins Gilman894 Words   |  4 Pages Short story fiction is a story that is shorter than a novel, has a few characters, and is about an imaginary event or person. Because short fiction is short the writer must capture and hold the reader’s attention within the first paragraph, which requires a mastery of literary technique. Some of the most helpful tools to use in literature are literary devices. Literary devices are any element, subject, or concept that is present through an entire body of literature. If these devices didn t existRead MoreThe Possibility Of Evil, And The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson1102 Words   |  5 PagesIn short stories the author composes a compelling plot, with an ending that in someway either teaches the main character a lesson, or the reader themselves. Jackson acts as a master of literary devices, as she navigates the reader through intense scenes that evoke an emotional response to the experiences of the main character. In the short stories, â€Å"The Possibility of Evil† and à ¢â‚¬Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson, she used the same three literary devices to grasp the reader’s attention from beginning