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Throughout history, irony has been used in a multitude of ways. It is not just a way to inject humor into a story, but a way to slip a message in without saying it flat out. By doing that, it allows the reader to take in the information, and possibly come to the conclusion that the author wanted them to. This way, though, it does not seem like something forced upon them. Authors who used this tactic were Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Expository Essay Irony can clearly be stated as the use of words that mean the opposite of what we think it means. An example of a story that uses irony is The Cask of Amontillado. Which is about a man named Montresor who believes this other man named Fortunato insulted him. Montresor’s family motto is “no one insults me with impunity”, he feels justified in taking revenge on Fortunato.
Irony occurs throughout the novel, The City of Ember. An example of this is when Lina and Doon discover the Mayor’s secret: “The mayor has a secret treasure room in the Pipeworks”(158). Lina is a messenger and gave a message from looper to the Mayor that was odd. It said, “Delivery at eight. From Looper”(31).Doon not long after finding a secluded door in the pipeworks.
Through each of the canterbury tales each tale has its own reason it's own lesson to be learned . For instance , The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale here you have three men who are on the journey to find death and kill him , but little did they know that death was too smart to fall for their trap and teased the men with thousands of gold coins under a tree with all this money the men turned against each other and set their own death dates on each other . Here in this tale you see Greed at it’s finest and it’s to show that money is all root of evil . Miller’s Prologue and Tale is a good example of lust , anger , and adultery .
Throughout the history of literature archetypes have posed as an important part of creating stories and characters. An archetype is a repetitive theme found within stories and other works over time. A few common ones are good vs. evil, damsels, and heroes. Archetypal elements are important in The Pardoner’s Tale and The Sorcerer’s Stone because deception, false sense of reality, and greed have a significant impact on the main characters, causing death, betrayal, and discovery in both stories. Deception would appear to be the most prominent theme in both of these stories.
Geoffry Chaucer uses verbal irony during thi8s part of the Pardoners Tale by giving them joy and excitement with them thinking they have it all figured out, but are actually having a meet and greet with their own death. “’Trust me.’” (Chaucer 130) Said one the rioters “’you needn’t doubt my word’” (Chaucer 130) this could be one of the most ironic points in Chaucer’s story.
One example of situational irony is first, the name “Fortunato” means “Fortunate” in Italian, but Fortunato is actually very unfortunate. Next, the word “cask” means “wine barrel,” but coffin also comes from the same word. So in other words, Fortunato believes he will reach a cask of wine, but in all actuality he will reach his coffin. Also, another great example of situational irony comes when Montresor has just dismembered Fortunato and exits the catacombs. Then, Montresor claims, “My heart grew sick-“(240).
Such as, when the loving husband died and his wife was overflowing with joy, and when the enemies who had fought over a strip of useless land became friends with hopes of largesse in the future. When the woman died right after the pinnacle of joy in her life, so did the interlopers. Feelings of freedom and peace can be so fleeting. If put in the wrong place that is. Irony is a wonderful literary device to create surprising and unexpected plot twist by taking the obvious and replacing it with something uniquely
Who pardons the Pardoner of his sins as he does the people he robs of their hard earned money? Is stealing only a sin due upon peasants, or is this simply just another example of hypocrisy within the Christian church. When one combines greed and religion a dark sort of alchemy begins to form known today as corruption. A plague that not only overwhelmed those of the past, but is also creeping its way into society yet again. In “The Pardoner’s Tale” a corrupt clergyman tells of how he recites stories in order to make money off of the already poverty stricken peasants.
What moves your world? Corruption moved Europe in the Middle Age. “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer demonstrates the corruption of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages in an effort to illustrate the irony of paying to get saved which portrays their religious culture during this time. During the Middle Ages after the black death people feared God was mad at them. Those who did not acknowledge the pope as God’s representative and the Roman Catholic Church as the only true church was doomed.
The short moral allegory, The Pardoner’s Tale, is only a small portion of the greater frame story, The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer writes this story in an ironic tone in every sense, including the fact that the story teller, the pardoner, is greedy himself. The pardoner’s tale primarily focuses on three rioters, whom are described as brothers. In the very beginning of the tale, these rioters are found drinking in a tavern, when they hear the ringing of a funeral knell.
As when first born.--And, sirs, that’s how I preach. ”(914-915). To sum up, Chaucer has littered irony all throughout “The Pardoner’s Tale”: in the prologue, tale, and epilogue. Chaucer has also use three different types of irony within the story: verbal, situational, and dramatic irony. All in all, the irony used was meant to show how society is deliberately ignorant at times for self gain, this is still occuring today as it did during Chaucer's time.
Geoffrey Chaucer, during the 1300s was a reformist, that being said, he used satire to change the views of the church he wished to reform. Chaucer had an agenda, this agenda was satire, directed to the yokels, the uneducated commoners. He targeted these people by writing in English. His writings were directed to these people because they would be those who were going to question the church. Natural instinct is to take what you know and share it, especially if the information is “juicy”.
Edgar Allan Poe’s use of literary devices to show the how fear of the characters in his stories are both helpful and harmful to them. Poe shows how the fears and obsessions of the narrators in his tales either lead to their inevitable death, or their miraculous survival. Edgar Allan Poe uses many literary devices in his texts, such as symbols, ironies, and figurative language, to show the strange and distorted ways of the characters, and the repercussion of their fears and obsessions. In Poe’s stories, a literary device he uses frequently throughout his stories, are symbols.
To start off with, the first poem “Concrete Mixers” by Patricia Hubbell, has lots of variety of figurative languages that the author uses to get its point across. According to the poem, “Concrete mixers are urban elephants.” The author creatively shows the use of the metaphor by making us imagine concrete mixers as elephants. Just by reading that line you can create a visual picture of the metaphor. Furthermore, the author uses a simile throughout the text.