Irony is an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects. The story “Ruthless” by William de Mille tells the story of a man who leaves a bottle of poisoned whiskey for the unknown people who have been entering his house while he is away. The author advocates irony to introduce the central idea of what goes around, comes around. In the narrative, the protagonist, Judson Webb, does and says things that recoile back onto himself, leading him to his death.
One example of irony is where Judson Webb poisons his liquor in the exposition of the story. The author exhibits the significance in the power of irony by allowing the opposite of what is believed to happen to occur. The story states “She caught her breath at this cruel vindictiveness as one by one he dropped the tablets into the bottle and held it up to watch them dissolve… He seemed fascinated as he saw the Bourbon changing into a deadly drink” (1). Based on this quote, it shows that Judson
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When asked, he responds “‘The law doesn’t call it murder if I shoot a thief who is entering my house by force… Also, the use of rat poison is not forbidden. The only way any rat can get into this closet is to break in. What happens then has nothing to do with me’” (2). In this case, Webb uses a metaphor to get his point across; he says “rat” but is referring to whomever breaks into his house and drinks his liquor, and “rat poison” refers to the poison used. In this sentence, he means to say that whoever enters his house will face their own consequence, as they drank his alcohol on their own and whatever occurs after is their own fault. This is ironic because Judson himself ends up consuming the whiskey, and it is primarily his own responsibility. The ironic statement of what Judson was trying to inflict on another, it actually returned back to him displays that what goes around, comes back