Irony In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Lottery

O.Henry provides a comical effect when using situational irony in his short story, “The Ransom of Red chief”. In contrast, Guy de Maupassant’s use of situational irony in “The Necklace” elicits a sense of pity or grief towards the protagonist. Emotions, as well as actions respond to other forms of sentiment. For instance, the sense of surprise may lead to anger, or perhaps gratitude. Thus, surprise does kindle to other emotion, yet it is also an emotion itself.

Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected. Poe use situational irony when he describes that he pitied the old man, although he chuckled at heart.

Irony, a common theme within both life and literature, has a distinct effect on its audience to display circumstances that contrast from what is to be expected. A highly acclaimed piece of British literature, "The Pardoner’s Tale,” exercises the vast impacts satirical elements have when implemented. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of “The Pardoner’s Tale,” integrates ironic material as his characters, the three rioters and the Pardoner, experience gluttony and greed. Thus, Chaucer made use of irony in order to make the traits of his characters prominent within his tale.

A Reflection on Satire While experiencing any type of literature, whether it is reading a novel, news article, or even viewing a movie, it is common for many to overlook or mistake the use of satire for comedy. Satire is utilized within all types of literature to make commentary on society or social situations through the use of comedy or humor (Andrzejewski). There are many devices of satire that an author can take advantage of, one of the most common being parodies. A parody is an imitation of a specific, known person, literary work, movie, or event (Andrzejewski). They can be considered jokes, as they poke fun at what the author view’s as wrong with the original piece of work or situation.

A lottery by traditional definition is working out a fundraiser by selling tickets to the people participating in the lottery. A final price awarded to a holder of a number at selected at random. In this case, the winner was Tessie but instead of celebrating for winning the price, she moans crying its unfair (Murphy, 2005). A violent conclusion foreshadows as the children pile up stone while others pocket them. This action is seemingly innocent but once the stone come to use the reality dawns on the reader.

“Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Gift of the Magi” are separate stories with a tale of two lovers, be one darker than the other. Both of these are fine examples of writing with irony sprinkled throughout. They use this technique to create interesting and effective twists and endings. With their ironic similarities, they can be compared to display their differences as well, with their situations being light and dark when set next to each other. “Lamb to the Slaughter” displays irony in a grim fashion through murder and the desperate escape from suspicion.

Dramatic Irony In A Midsummer's Night’s Dream In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck leads a rein of Situational irony throughout Athens. Irony is the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous reaction. Irony is used in many different ways from Verbal to Dramatic and Situational. Verbal irony is when someone says something that is the opposite of how they feel or what happend like falling down and getting hurt to say, “That was fun”. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows what is going on when it comes to something mischievous or funny that the characters don't know about like a prank.

Theme Analysis: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses this ever-present theme of perspective to highlight the despicably deceptive actions perpetrated by the portrayed villains while also emphasizing the goodness of the heroes and their misfortune to further contrast the two parties. Through the demonstrations of the foulness and fairness of the characters, Shakespeare successfully expresses the value of perspective by calling attention to how there can be multiple interpretations of the same action or identity which is ultimately paradoxical as one thing can simultaneously have two or more opposing natures. By the end of the play, Macbeth is truly an evil man, but many question if he was initially evil or if the sudden opportunity and prophesies turned him into such an ambitious man, willing to stop at nothing to achieve

This shows that she is trying to change the rules to benefit herself now that she knows that she is the chosen one. At first, the reader doesn’t see why it’s so bad to be chosen because their thinking is of a modern day lottery, when the winner will receive a huge cash prize, but not in this case. It is later revealed that the “winner” of the lottery will be stoned to death by everyone in the town. This can connect to the beginning of the story, when the children are collecting rocks and playing with them. The reader doesn’t see that it is foreshadowing until the ending of the story, when Tessie is slaughtered by the town members.

Black is culturally known as a dark and evil color, the choice of using black for the box is a perfect fit for the theme of the short story, foreshadowing the coming death of the citizen. No one in the village surely knows how the lottery started, but they kept on following through with it because it is what has always been done. Another representation of symbolism would be the stones that give an access to all the citizens in the village to throw stones at the selected winner of the lottery. As the narrator observes, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." (Jackson 114) in which stoning is ancient and one that costs a great deal of punishment.