Situational irony is when authors use the plot of their story to create an unexpected twist and catch the reader off guard. For example, Guy de Maupassant uses situational irony to produce a feeling of sympathy in his short story“The Necklace.” “The Ransom Of Red Chief” by O. Henry is another story that uses situational irony to produce a humorous feeling in the reader. By reading these two short stories, it is clear that the authors use situational irony to affect the readers’ emotions. In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant Mathilde wants to be richer than she is. She borrows Madame Forestier’s necklace for a huge ball that night to pretend to be rich. She then loses the necklace and after going into debt to replace it Mathilde is now poorer that the poor. The narrator says about Mathilde, “Her tastes were simples because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was unhappy as though she had …show more content…
Henry, situational irony produces the emotion of humor. Johnny’s reaction to being kidnapped is bizarre. Bill and Sam kidnap him thinking that he is going to be frightened and going to want to go home. But, instead Johnny seems elated to be there. Sam and Bill then think that the boy wants to go home and Sam says, “Red chief, says I to the kid, would you like to go home”(41). Then Johnny replies “Aw, what for...You won’t take be back home again...Will you?...I never had such fun in my life”(41). This proves that Johnny is actually having a lot of fun and does not want to even think about going home. Bill and Sam send a note to Johnny’s father saying that in order to have his son back he will need to pay Bill and Sam fifteen hundred dollars. When the father sees the note he instead demands 250 dollars in cash for taking his son. Ebenezer Dorset, the father, writes “You will bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash…(52). This situational irony is a plot twist and it is a humorous way to end the
Both situational and verbal irony are used throughout the story to develop a humorous tone. Situational irony is used in many instances in the story to create humor. One of the first instances of situational irony is when the “would be” kidnappers first carry little “Red Chief” off to their lair. The reader
In the beginning, Johnny's future work and family life seems fixed—he
I imitated in my best girly voice. “Well I gotta go, I love you Johnny, and I miss you so
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.
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.
“... bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars, and I agree to take him of your hands”(O. Henry 3). Showing that the dad knows his son is annoying and that he will get his son back. O. Henry’s short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” is a low level comedy that uses comic characters and word play pun to convey the idea that people that do bad, don 't think about the consequences that could happen to them. O. Henry’s story is a low comedy because of the plot and the physical mishaps. In the story the boy hits bill again with a rock.
Surprise, something that authors can use to their advantage to fill the reader with emotion. This is called situational irony. this can create a sense of mixed emotion using situational irony. Situational irony is when in the plot, there is an unexpected twist. Examine the two stories; “Ransom Of Redchief” by O. Henry, and “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupasset, both authors use situational irony to create an unexpected twist.
In the short story “Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, it used differences in the point of views of the characters to create dramatic irony by the characters Sam and Bill believing that the father will pay to get the son back, yet we can tell from the child 's actions that the father won’t pay that amount, so the father ends up getting paid to get the son back, which was humorous to us but not to the actual characters. An example from the text to support my claim is from page 25,” That boy had Bill terrorized from the start.” This shows that even though Bill was the kidnapper the kid was torturing him. This explains how from the beginning this child was too horrible for anyone to want to handle. We also know that dad, who spent most time with
The movie and the story “The ransom of Red Chief” is alike in many ways. It is also different. In the storybook and the movie the kidnappers need 2,000 dollars. So they set off to find Johnny. Also in the movie and story the kidnappers’ names were Bill and Sam.
Red Chief’s dad wanted Bill and Sam to pay him $250 to return Red Chief home. There were also some differences in the movie and story. In the story they offered Red Chief candy, but in the movie they did not. Red Chief also did not throw at rock at Bill like he did in the story. In the movie, the ransom note was delivered by a child.
Ponyboy was also very startled that Johnny would do such a thing. And was even more scared that they would kill Johnny for killing Bob. “I said we’re going back to turn ourselves in.” (Hinton, 87) Johnny was very brave in
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.
The situational irony in “The Ransom of Red Chief”, by O. Henry, implies a humorous effect on the reader. One example in the story, is the boy enjoys being kidnapped, and ends up torturing Bill. Getting the boy to the cave at first was hard for the criminals, but once the boy got there, he started having fun. He loved camping out and pretending they were Indian chiefs. “‘Red Chief,’ says I to the kid, ‘would you like to go home?’
A great example of dramatic irony takes place in the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, with the character Dee. Of the two daughters, Dee is the oldest and Maggie is the youngest. At a very young age, Maggie suffers a personal tragedy and endures physical scarring from a house fire, while Dee is a very determined young girl who wants nothing more than
“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry contains several marvelous examples of irony. First of all, the story begins in a tranquil village called Summit which was handpicked by two kidnappers, Bill and Sam, who decided to kidnap a little boy in Summit called Red Chief because they presumed that Red Chief’s father, Ebenezer Dorset, would give them a lot of money, but, ever since the beginning, Bill and Sam who assume the roles of Old Hank and Snake-eye, respectively, in Red Chief’s game notice something quite peculiar about this boy. This boy is acting like he is having the time of his life, and he has so much energy that he completely terrorizes Bill. One day, when Sam asks Red Chief if he wants to go home, Red Chief answers with a childish,