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Situational Irony In 'The Ransom Of Redchief'

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Situational irony can affect people in many different ways. Surprise is an emotion that often comes with almost all situational irony, but there are many other emotions that are felt as well. In O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Redchief,” situational irony is used to produce humor. When an original plan completely backfires, and has an opposite effect than what should have happened, people usually feel pity but because of the mischievous characterization, the effect will be humorus. A similar result comes from In “The Ransom of Redchief” the author, O. Henry, uses situational irony to produce humor. The narrator and his partner in crime, Bill, come up with the idea of kidnapping Ebenezer Dorset’s son, Johnny Dorset, to collect ransom. When they
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The story and the movie “The Ransom of Red Chief” have a bunch of differences. In the movie, Sam tells a random kid to send a letter to Mr. Dorset. But in the story, Sam took the letter to the post office and a mail man took it to Mr. Dorset. Another difference is that in the story, the kidnappers offered Johnny Dorset some candy and kidnapped him. But in the movie, the kidnappers didn’t offer him candy and just put him in a trunk.

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You might expect a kidnapper to be incontrol, demanding, and fearless. But this is not the case in the story “The Ransom of the Red Chief” by O. Henry, where the author uses situational and verbal irony to develop the tone of the story. Both verbal and situational irony are used throughout the story to develop a humorous tone. Situational irony is used in many instances in the story to create humor.

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The Pardoner’s tale consists of multiple examples of irony, this includes verbal, dramatic and situational irony. The Pardoner is described as the least virtuous character on the pilgrimage which is odd because he is a member of the church. Chaucer created the Pardoner to serve as a representation of the corruption in the church during the medieval time period. The Pardoner’s tale is very memorable because there is not just irony seen in the tale itself, but there is also irony seen between the Pardoner and the tale he tells. Situational irony is when the opposite of what one believes will happen occurs.

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Irony is present in everyday life. It has become the crux of thousands of jokes, remarks and even the media. Thousands of stories include irony in them in the form of ironic twists, characters, and plotlines. The irony in stories is often sidelined or overlooked; however, it can be so much more. In “The Veldt”, it is, in fact, a large part of the story.

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In his short stories, O. Henry shows many examples of irony/plot twists. Ransom of the Red Chief is a story about two men who decide to kidnap a boy. However, he treats the men as if they were toys, and drives the men crazy causing them to give the boy back. "I found Bill backed up against the side of it, breathing hard, and the boy threatening to smash him with a rock

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Many different authors have different styles of writing that they use. Styles can vary to an evil, dark story, to a very humorous and funny story. O.Henry's style is very humorous and he is a master of picking when to use irony inside of his short stories. O.Henry's use of irony to entertain the reader, has humorous statements throughout the story, and his use of descriptive language and imagery to better understand the plot line is excellent in The Ransom of Red Chief.

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