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More handpicked essays just for you.
How to use irony in life
Shakespeare's dramatic irony
Use of irony in short stories
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“My husband and I never considered divorce… murder sometimes, but never divorce.” -anonymous. In the book Lamb To The Slaughter , Roald Dahl writes about a woman (Mary Maloney) who is madly in love with her husband. Which led her into some trouble. Based on the irony of the story, there are lots of unsuspected turns. Dahl uses verbal, dramatic and situational irony to show the theme of betrayal. In the story, Mary Malone is waiting at home excited for her husband to arrive.When he comes home he tells her that he’s leaving her; once she realizes what she had just heard, she snaps and becomes mentally ill. With that she acts as if she is going to grab a lamb leg to cook for dinner, but instead she whacks her husband in the back of the head. …show more content…
It could also work because as the readers see it Mary Malone is a perfect wife and the fact that her husband Patrick wants to leave her is mind blowing. Especially because Mary is pregnant and that also fits into the theme of betrayal because the husband is betraying the wife by leaving her. The second part of irony used in this story is verbal irony. Because when she heads to the grocery store the woman who works there starts a conversation with her. Mary Malone talks to the grocery worker as if her husband is still alive. " ‘Anything else?’ " The grocer turned his head to one side, looking at her. " ‘How about dessert? What are you going to give him for dessert? How about a nice piece of cake? I know he likes cake.’ ” “ ‘Perfect.’ " she said. " ‘He loves it.’ " (Dahl 3) After the cops come to investigate her house, she invites them to stay over for dinner. When they finally agree, they all sit around the table eating the lamb leg she had cooked. Which is where the third piece if irony is shown, they are all eating the murder weapon she had just killed her husband with. Which is dramatic irony because we know something the characters in the story dont. " ‘Whoever did it, he can't carry a weapon that big around with him.’ " " ‘Personally, I think the weapon is somewhere near the house.’
Dramatic irony is used through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s return. His death had brought her such great sorrow but upon his return she died. Her death then created sorrier bringing in the irony of the beginning of the story where it was said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart was bad and she was tried not to be stressed.
We see with Mary that being pregnant can alter your emotions and cause someone to act much different that who they really are. Her husband being ready to divorce, makes her in denial that he no longer wants to be with her and hopeless because she will be left to raise her baby alone. Mary, not being about to think straight, kills her husband, going to show that she was evidently suffering from mental instability during and even after the killing. As evident, this was no murder committed in cold blood. Mary is innocent in the murder of Patrick Maloney by plea of temporary
Thesis: In Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter" the use of tone is comprehensively to show the real lamb of the story, Patrick.
For example, in the beginning of the story, the narrator starts by talking about Mrs. Freeman. “Besides the neutral expressions that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings” (433). The irony in this first line is that she is a “Freeman,” yet only has three different expressions. Another example of an irony that is easily noticeable is when Mrs. Hopewell considered Manley Pointer as “good country people.” “He was just good country people, you know” (441). The irony in this line is that in the end, Manley Pointer, whom is supposedly is “good country people,” ends up being a thief who steals Hulga’s prosthetic leg and runs and not only steals, but admits that he is not a Christian, making the line, “good country people,” a dramatic irony. However, one of the most ironic characters in the story is Hulga herself as she understands little of herself, regardless of the high education she holds in philosophy. For example, Hulga imagines that Pointer is easily seduced. “During the night she had imagined that she seduced him” (442). Yet, when they kissed, she was the one who was seduced and having the “extra surge of adrenaline… that enables one to carry a packed trunk out of a burning house…”
Irony is when the most unlikely and opposite thing that can occur in a situation takes place. In literature, irony plays a major role in evolving a story onward and deepening its meaning. For instance, in the short story “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, there are quite a few examples of irony that completes the understanding of the short story as a whole. Trifles is about a farmer, John Wright, who has been murdered in his sleep one night by a stringing a rope around his neck that killed him. And the first suspect that comes to mind is his wife, Minnie Wright. While Mrs.Wright is taken into custody the County Attorney, the Sheriff and his wife Mrs.Peters, and a neighborhood farmer and his wife Mrs.Hales come to investigate the crime scene and look
There are so many examples of situational irony that is clear throughout these stories Mr. Mallard being dead, Mama finally realizes that Maggie deserves the quilts because she understands her heritage better than Dee, Mathilde finding out she worked her whole life for nothing, and when Mr. Graves tells Tessie that Eva draws with her husband's family, Tessie is angry. Dramatic irony is everywhere as well. Louise dies from the shock of seeing her husband who is supposed to be dead and when Dee never wanted anything to do with her heritage until somebody was impressed by it.
In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is shown to have a very sinister and manipulative character. In the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney was a normal, loving and caring pregnant housewife that loved and cared for her husband, Patrick Maloney, very much. Earlier at the start of the story we see Mary was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She had set up the house with two table lights lit and plates on the dining table so they can have a very romantic dinner when Patrick comes home. When Patrick came home, Mary was very excited to see him. She would try to offer him some drinks and insisted she would get things in the house he needed so he didn’t have to get up himself. The countless times that Patrick said no to her offers and helpful doings, she still tried to serve and tried to make him feel comfortable and relax after work.
In Roald Dahl’s short story, Lamb to the Slaughter, a man (Patrick) returns home to his loving, pregnant wife (Mary) and announces he is leaving her, a revelation which turns the once docile and content woman into a cold-blooded murderer. Dahl reveals this unexpected transformation of Mary Maloney, the spurned wife, through her actions and thoughts.
Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl, instantly grabs a reader’s attention with its grotesque title, ensuing someone’s downfall or failure. The saying “lamb to the slaughter,” usually refers to an innocent person who is ignorantly led to his or her failure. This particular short story describes a betrayal in which how a woman brutally kills her husband after he tells her that he wants a divorce. She then persuades the policemen who rush to the scene to consume the evidence. This action and Patrick’s actions show the theme of betrayal throughout the story which Roald Dahl portrays through the use of point of view, symbolism and black humor.
Without irony in a story it may be very boring and easy to put the story down. With irony included in the story the reader does not want to put the book down and stays interested throughout the entire story because irony makes the reader want to know what is going to happen next because they can’t guess it. Kate Chopin uses irony to perfection in this short story. She does this by using irony to let the reader better understand the purpose and meaning of the story. Without the irony in this story it would be dull and boring, but with irony, the story has suspense and unexpected events. This story was not like other stories that you usually read. It was not predictable at all. I love the vivid imagery throughout the whole story. I like this story because you can not really predict what is going to happen. When you can predict, it usually ruins the story. It kept you wandering about how it was going to end.
Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.
The short story “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is about the death of a detective who has been murdered by his wife. As officers arrive they can’t seem to find the murder and the murder weapon. The short story Lamb to The Slaughter is interesting to read because the author allows readers to put their own perspective into the book. Another reason is the storyline and finally the theme.
Authors create characters with unexpected sides to them to draw the reader in. In Roald Dahl’s story “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary Maloney is portrayed as an innocent loving woman who turns out to be an overly obsessive character, which changes the perspective of her character throughout the story.
In the short story, “What a Thought” by Shirley Jackson, situational irony is presented at the end. Throughout the short story, the main character, Margaret, is having morbid thoughts about killing her husband which are completely unwanted, “I never dreamed of killing him. I want him to live. Stop it, stop it,” she tells herself. Margaret's life seems splendid and very normal and she loves her husband very much, “Margaret found herself thinking with some pride that unlike many men she had heard about, her husband did not fall asleep after a particularily good dinner,” admiring how he is truly an amazing husband. Therefore, killing her husband was very unexpected which is ironic considering her picture perfect life and husband. The irony is
The writer uses verbal, situational and dramatic irony to show how the life of Louise Mallard changed significantly within an hour after she heard the news that her husband had died tragically. She experienced mild grief, joy, and freedom within the period. But in an ironic twist, she also lost her new life in the same hour, when her spouse walked through the front door unhurt as he was nowhere near the accident location. Finally, this story proves that irony is a magnificent literary