Category: Irony

Shakespeare ‘Macbeth’ was written in 1606, it’s based on a man named Macbeth who wanted to become the king of Scotland (where he resides). The main theme of Macbeth is the spoiling nature of his unchecked ambition, which is displayed through his struggles against himself, his wife, and society all driven by the want of…

In ‘The Ransom of Red Chief’, the characters’ actions are the opposite of what is expected, which creates irony. O. Henry, the author, develops irony through contrasting character points of view and uses irony to create humor and surprise. O. Henry begins the story with Sam, the narrator and kidnapper, discussing how he and Bill…

The short story, ‘The Jewelry’, by Guy De Maupassant examines the theme of life being full of irony and never knowing what you are really dealing with. One may perceive something and think it is amazing until they see the reality of the situation and then truly understand what they were dealing with and how…

Irony occurs when a reader sees that the author is showing that there is a gap between what is thought to be true and what actually is true. Irony is not always immediately apparent to the reader. If ironies are too obvious or heavy, the reader is likely to feel that he or she is…

In ‘Bully’ Martin Espada uses the first stanza to introduce the theme of his poem. “In the school auditorium/the Theodore Roosevelt statue/is nostalgic” (lines 1-3). The statue described emanates a nostalgia for the Spanish-American war, which was considered by many to be a morally reprehensible act of hate upon Hispanic people. The author of the…

In his novel ‘Shibumi’, author Rodney William Whitaker writes, “Irony is fate’s most common figure of speech”. Irony is present in almost every situation imaginable—from the small talk made while waiting in line to the foundation of some of the most well-known, acclaimed pieces of literature in history. Simply put, irony is a contrast between…

Pahom was a hardworking man. But nonetheless, he was a poor peasant. He and his wife seemed content living a stress-free lifestyle, and not having much. “We may never grow rich, but we will always have enough to eat”, his wife would say. Although Pahom agreed, he thought in the back of his mind that…

He talks a lot about his lack of actual freedom in the opening monologue of ‘The Story of an Hour’. The thought of the husband now not believing his wife comes to the fore in this story in phrases of situational irony. From Webster’s New World College Dictionary, we get this definition: “Freedom is stated…

As we know, in his early work on The Concept of Irony, Sren Kierkegaard examined the subject of irony in depth. Many of the issues raised in this work, such as defining the subject of cognition and subjective self-knowledge, will be addressed in Kierkegaard’s following works. References to George W. F. Hegel’s thesis also distinguishes…

Philosophical Fragments, written under the pseudonym ‘Johannes Climacus,’ is an important component of his philosophical and theological explication, explaining the conceptual distinction between Greek and religious philosophy. Soren Kierkegaard used Johannes Climacus to explain his ideas about how the concept of self fits into faith’s vast eternity. In Philosophical Fragments, he starts with Greek Platonic…