Irony In The Metamorphosis

Critical Analysis Have you ever read a story and realized that the story as a whole is ironic? This kind of overall irony adds a very interesting plot to the piece of writing and adds interesting dramatic events throughout the story. The kind of irony in this story would be considered situational, dramatic, and verbal. In a short story, or novella, irony can add needed details to a story to keep the reader's attention or just add a new interest to the story, these features of writing make the story a great read. To go into more detail about the irony in, “The Metamorphosis”, we can break it up into three different groups. The first group being dramatic irony, meaning the audience knows something that the characters do not know, making the actions of the characters seem out of place or humorous.“When Gregor Samsa woke up from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1156). Now this impacts him in a few ways; he can not do human activities, be treated like a person anymore, and he can not provide for his family. This adds dramatic irony to the story because Gregor was the sole provider for the family, working ungodly hours and traveling to multiple different places a week, and this is what he gets for being an amazing co-worker

Situational irony is described as, when what happens is the opposite of what you expect given the situation and characters. An example of this kind of irony is in the very beginning of the story, “When Gregor Samsa woke up from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1156). This is considered situational irony because as the reader, we are not expecting a story to start out the with Gregor transformed into a beetle. Franz Kafka does a good job inserting multiple literary elements to his story to give it more detail, and by using situational irony he is making the story more