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Situational Irony In 'The Ransom Of Redchief'

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Situational irony is when a story twists and changes something that the reader would not expect to happen. Within the story “The Ransom of Redchief” by O. Henry or Guy de Mauoassant’s story “The Necklace”, they use situational irony multiple times in their story. When situational irony is used it has an affect on the reader, it shows an emotion, if a twist happens and it ends up bad it could be a sad emotion . In a good twist, and it would be a emotion of happiness or joy, the opposite. Situational irony keeps the story going, keeps the reader amused, and puts emotion to the story. This is all shown very well and nicely put in the story “The Necklace”. In “The Necklace” Mathilde, the main character thought that she deserved the best, she should have been a rich women. Mathilde never got that, she married a man who could still provide her with a nice life, with a home, and food, but that was not good enough for her, she needed the perfect life. It was never going to happen, her husband did not have a good enough job to make that kind of money. One night when she had some money to buy a dress, go to a ball and be that rich, beautiful women for one night, she even borrowed a necklace from her friend. When she came back, she was disappointed it was over, but it got worse, she lost her friend’s necklace. They needed another, but it cost so much, they went …show more content…

Two men Bill and Hank needed some money and they did not want to just get a job, they decided to kidnap a kid and return him once a prize was offered to whoever could find and return the kid. Once the caught him they expected him to be calm and scared, but he was not scared, he was happy. He was happy to be out in the wilderness, he thought he was camping which he had never done before. “All right!” say he. “That’ll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life”(41). He was not afraid of what the men would do, he was tougher than they

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According the the dictionary, the definition of “irony” is, “a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts. verbal irony occurs when words are used to suggest the opposite of their usual meaning. an irony of situation is when an event occurs that directly contradicts expectations.” In this case, irony is the main literary device that makes this story a magnificent piece of literature.

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