Situational Irony In The Ransom Of Red Chief

The use of irony is present in many short stories as well as in other mediums

Pride brings fulfilment to people's lives on the surface, but below the surface it only brings destruction. In the short story, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, the author present this idea through his excessively prideful character, Mathilde Loisel. Mathilde Loisel, an unsatisfied woman, takes all of her perfectly valid possessions to be proud of and throws them away resulting in years of hardship for her and her husband. Mathilde Loisel’s pride is disguised by lovely experiences and luxurious belongings only to be revealed as something of pure destruction. Pride will bring bliss only to later bring destruction.

What would you do if everything that you did in your life came out just like you wanted it to? However, life does not work like that due to something called irony. O. Henry's short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” is a high level of comedy that uses irony and allusions to convey the idea that sometimes things don't come out like we expect them to.

For instance, a clear example of Situational Irony is at the end of short story. Federigo gave up everything to win Monna Giovanna’s love, but she did not pay any heed to him. The author explained that Federigo “was spending his plentiful money without restraint; but she, cared little for these things he did on her behalf, nor did she care who did them.” Her son becomes ill and she asked for one act of service which was to hand over Federigo’s beloved falcon to spare her son’s life but he could not because Federigo killed it for their meal. It seems as if he had lost all hope for a shot at her love. Though after a grieving and sorrowful period because of her son’s death, she proudly declared to her brothers ‘Since you wish me to take a husband, you may be sure that I shall take no man

“To be happy in life you must learn the difference between what you want vs need” (unknown). Most people who can not decipher between want and need don not appreciate life and objects to the fullest. An imbalance of these things can cause unhappiness, bad relationships, and debt. Deciding between things people want and what is need can be hard. The pain of having an imbalance is shown in The Necklace, The Golden Touch, and Avarice.

Mathilde and the princess from "The Lady or the Tiger" are two characters who have

example of situational irony in this text so i will not be giving examples of situational

Everyone in life wants to fit in because why would anyone want to be left out? However, the fact that we want to fit in ruins some people's lives because of the limits they go to to accomplish our common goal. On the contrary, some lives are ruined by trying to stand out and not staying with the crowd. This is very clearly stated in two very different ways by Guy de Maupassant in the story “The Necklace” and by Ray Bradbury in “The Pedestrian”. In both of these stories we are shown that you should not get caught up in what others are doing.

Situational irony occurs when the final outcome of a story is contradictory to what is expected. Authors often use situational irony to target the emotions of their reader. O. Henry the author of “The Ransom of Red Chief” and Guy de Maupassant the author of “The Necklace” use situational irony to affect different emotions of their readers. O. Henry uses it to target the reader’s humorous side. Whereas Guy de Maupassant uses it to target the reader’s sympathetic side. By examining “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “The Necklace” it is clear that the authors use situational irony to target the emotions of the reader.

Human nature causes people to desire more than what one already has. However, after desiring material items, people realize the foolishness in their greed. In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Mathilde Loisel, who lives in France during the 1880s, attempts to transform her ordinary life into one of luxury. She attends a reception with her friend Madame Forestier's diamond necklace, but after losing it, she works to buy a new necklace, only to later discover the necklace she lost is fake. Through this experience, Mathilde learns to be content with what she has, and as a result, she realizes the flaws in her character.

‘I don’t have any fun at home. I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won’t take me back home again, Snake-eye, will you?’ ‘Not right away,’ says I. ‘We’ll stay here in the cave a while.’ ‘All right! Says he. ‘That’ll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life.’ (Henry 2) This helps develop a humorous tone because instead of begging to go home, he begs to stay because he has a better time there than home. A final example of situational irony is when “Red Chief’s” father responds to the ransom note. The reader expects that the father will be willing to pay anything to get his son back. We would think that he is worried, anxious, and upset for his child. Also, he would feel angry at the kidnappers for stealing his son. Again, the father does not react as expected, instead he is not worried one bit. In fact he knows how hard it is to live with him and knows that the kidnappers will not be able to deal with him for so long, that they will eventually bring him back home. This is clearly described in the text when it portrays, “You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands.” (Henry 8) This is the ultimate tool in creating a humorous tone because one would expect that the

Mathilde in “The Necklace” is simply unhappy because she doesn't have money but has a rich husband. Della in “Gift of the Magi” is unhappy because she doesn't have money to buy her husband a gift for Christmas so she makes a decision.

Situational irony is when events happen that seem to be the opposite of what is expected. For example, in O.Henry’s short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” he uses situational irony to create humor for his audience. Also in Guy de Maupassant short story “The Necklace” he uses situational irony to produce a feeling of sympathy. By examining these two short stories, it is clear that author’s utilize situational irony to affect the reader’s emotions

In “The Ransom of the Red Chief” by O. Henry there is a bunch of ironies. One example of Irony that can be found in this short story is “There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake (pancake), and called Summit, of course.” (Henry 5-6). To know if this an example of irony we must analyze the sentence. There was a town down there (implying that the town is under where they are standing), as flat as a pancake flannel-cake, and called Summit (peak of a mountain), of course. We know that a pancake is always flat but the name Summit implies that the town should be high above everything and it also implies that this town should be at an angle, but since it not it is considered as situational irony. After this part of the sentence, he says

Two kidnappers steal a little boy from a small town to get rich off of the ransom. Soon they realize that the little boy is so aggravating, and irritating that when they try to return him, they have to pay a ransom to give him back. In the “Ransom of The Redchief” by O. Henry, situational irony is in use throughout the story. Most authors like O. Henry uses situational irony to make us have a sudden emotion. In “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant situational irony makes the reader feel pity for the characters. Throughout story's many authors use situational irony to affect the reader's emotions.