Situational Irony In The Ransom Of Red Chief

Situational irony is an unexpected plot twist in the story which is used by authors to create surprise and feelings. Many authors use this device such as O.Henry in “The Ransom of Red chief” a humorous story and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” a story that creates sympathy in the reader.
By investigating the two stories, “The Ransom of Red chief” and “The Necklace,” it is clear that author’s use situational irony several times in their stories to change the way readers feel about the character or characters. O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red chief” is a humorous short story that has several great examples of situational irony. In “The Ransom of Red chief” O.Henry uses situational irony to evoke excitement and humor in the reader. When Bill and Hank kidnap the ten year old kid they expect him to be scared and or frightened that he is captive. Instead the little boy pretends to be an Indian chief and beats up Bill. “The fun of camping out in a cave had made him forget that he

Mathilde has become a poor woman who does the chores and haggles for the groceries. Still she thinks of the day at the ball where she was beautiful and admired. "She had become like all of the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households... thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired."(7) Mathilde tried so hard to look rich and beautiful, but in the end trying to look beautiful made her the poorest of the poor. "'You remember the diamond necklace ... I bought you another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it."'(8) Later Mathilde finds out the necklace she lost was fake and that the one she bought was thirty eight thousand francs unlike the fake which was five hundred francs. The reader in this case would feel pity on Mathilde for what she went