Character Sketch on The Sniper
The character is a significant factor of the story which the plot, theme and other crucial parts of the story revolve around. The story “The Sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty takes place in Dublin, Ireland in the 1920s. The story takes place during a civil war against the Republicans and the Free Staters. The Sniper is one of the Republicans. The Sniper is a round, dynamic character that is critical to the theme and irony of the story.
The Sniper is a round and dynamic character. A round character is normally the main character and is described thoroughly. The character, the Sniper is a round character because he was described in detail throughout the story. “His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but
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Some of the literary elements “The Sniper” shows are point of view, irony, symbolism, and theme. The characters in the story add to these elements greatly. One of the elements “The Sniper” shows is irony. There are three kinds of irony; situational, verbal, and dramatic. “The Sniper” focuses on situational irony. Situational irony is when a situation turns out to be the opposite of what the reader expects. “The Sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face”(265). The Sniper contributes to the irony of the short story because the reader does not expect the Sniper to not only look at the Free Stater enemy he shot down, but also for the now dead Free Stater to be his own brother. Without the Sniper looking at the body we would have never known that it was his brother, and there would not have been any situational irony. The Sniper also contributes to the theme. The theme of a story is the central idea of a story. In “The Sniper”, the theme is that war can divide families and destroy relationships, and sometimes remorse does not go away. The Sniper contributed to both of these themes. The Sniper was part of the family that this war destroyed, and after he realized that he killed his own brother he felt remorse. This remorse did not go away. “The Sniper” has many literary elements that got contributed to by the