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Theme Of Irony In The Little Match Girl

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In the short story “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen the author is able to successfully use irony as an effective tool of literary device. The story begins with a poor young girl wandering through the city trying to sell matches, if she fails to do so her father will beat her. Unsuccessful and tired she decides to settle outside a nearby house and use matches to keep her warm.Through these matches she has vivid hallucinations of wondrous images, and is further pulled in; compelled to keep lighting matches to see where they will take her next The story is ironic because ultimately the matches are what freezes her to death. The author uses ironic language throughout the piece that unifies the story in the style of New Criticism. …show more content…

At the end of the story the Little Match Girl is found frozen to death the next morning with a handful of used matches and a big smile across her face. Anderson doesn’t tell the readers why the girl is smiling, but leaves them with the impression that she died happy. Ultimately, the one thing that was supposed to keep her alive throughout the night was the reason that she died. All of the smaller ironies in the story lead up to the ending, making the story fit under New Critics evaluation of what makes a story whole. Andersen made sure that the story builded up to the event of the Little Match Girl’s death, with small hints of contrast in the story. The ending is the most ironic because during the story, she was using each match to keep her warm. Each match led her to being warmer and warmer, but yet eventually the matches froze her to death. If she didn’t stay outside to light the matches, she wouldn’t have frozen to death. Yet, at the ending she dies with a smile on her face. This leaves the readers to figure out whether or not she actually recognized the freezing temperature. Subjectively the smile on her face informs the reader that the matches and wanderous hallucinations of warm places kept her so warm, she didn’t even realize she was dying of the cold which is

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