Situational Irony In Stardust By Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s Stardust is not the typical fairytale that people every have gotten so used to hearing. Looking at how Gaiman somehow adheres to both Northrop Frye’s mythos of summer and winter, in addition to the strange cast of characters, and the unique setting of the novel; readers obtain an experience unparalleled to the classic fairytale. Gaiman follows all the rules of Vladimir Propp’s structure for a fairytale, but in an unconventional way. His heavy use of irony is what keeps the story interesting and sets it aside from other classic tales that have been told for so long.

Stardust follows the adventures of three sets of people along their journey to retrieve a fallen star. The first plot line is the typical boy who embarks on a journey

for true love, the second revolves around a conclave of princes that have to prove they are one true successor to the king’s throne, and the third main plot line follows a trio of witches that will do anything for eternal youth. Told from the perspective of an unknown narrator, the speaker appears to be almost speaking to the reader and telling the story as though the reader and the narrator were sitting around a campfire swapping stories. The story begins with the typical “once upon a time” format setting the novel in an unknown period of time only letting the reader know that the story was in the past. The location of the novel is placed in a town called Wall located in England and the beyond it called Faerie. There is a physical wall that divides the lands, only once every 9 years are people allowed to cross it for a market; citizens of the town called Wall all take turns guarding it, no one gets through otherwise. The land in England is as what one would expect it to be. It’s real and in the real world a fallen star is a celestial rock, but the land of Faerie is much different. It is full of magic and unexplainable wonder, in Faerie a fallen star is a woman, a daughter of the moon.
It is important to note what makes a great fairytale and in 1968, Vladimir Propp, a scholar of folk tales and fairytales that all all fairytales follow the very same structure and convey the same meanings. He created a 31-piece model of how a fairytale works and concluded that all fairytales follow the same order of functions, or events, as well. For example, Propp says that in the beginning there is member of the household who is absent (26). In Stardust that would be the main character, Tristian’s birth mother. Furthermore, the hero leaves home and is aided by some form of magic (39). Our hero Tristian Thorn, in Stardust, leaves home in search of a fallen star and uses a magical candle that can transport him right to it. And finally there is the grand conclusion, where he hero gets the girl and ascends the throne (63). According to Propp this is how all fairytales end: such as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Sword in the Stone, and finally Stardust. A fairytale may skip some of the functions but they do not go out of order. Stardust follows this model, but it is the surface of the story that plays with the fairytales we all now. For example, the prince in the novel are neither handsome or charming, the princess or love interest isn’t who the main character is trying to prove his affections for, pirates are nice and they fly boats in the sky, and the “hero” has a step mother and step sister who aren’t in the least bit evil. Gaiman plays with Northrop Frye’s archetypical characteristics of a story and it is precisely this, that separates Stardust away from other novels.
Throughout the novel, the reader keeps on anticipating one thing to happen and then the complete opposite happens.

Audiences have been conditioned to think in a single mind and Gaiman knows this and challenges what the reader is expecting. The reader experiences what is known as situational irony. The characters, setting, and events in the novel stray from the standard and routine way of thinking (Shelly 776). The most prominent form if situational irony that readers pick up on in the novel is that the characters do not meet their standard archetypical functions. A pirate is expected to be gruesome, tough, and mean however our captain in the novel Stardust completely shatters these expectations. His name is Captain Johannes Alberic and he is actually a light hearted man who rather than stealing treasure, steals lightning out of the sky and sells it. The captain is just one of many characters that don’t not fit the ideal characters that we envision in this fairytale. When our main hero is found stranded in the sky by a pirate ship, readers are expecting conflict or some act of heroism and bravery that frees them form the grasp of an evil doer. Unexpectedly, the pirate captain is polite and chivalrous (Gaiman

192-9).
In continuation of how the novel conveys many forms of situational irony. The genre of the novel is ironic as well. Stardust does not adhere to a specific image thus making it hard to pin point whether or not it falls under the reign of Northrop Frye’s theory of myths. Used to categorize genres of literature in western culture, Frye’s theory of myths is divided between narrative of winter and summer, each has its own associated group of genres with characteristics, demands, and and one can see why as well. The association placed on winter is cold, dreary, ironic, and satirical. These novels are typically filled with real world experience, failure, and uncertainty which can be found in plentitude throughout the novel (Tyson 209). For example, the setting of the novel harbors between the magical realm and the real world. Magic can’t exist in the real world, people are faced with poverty and hardships, the people of the town called wall are described as “grey and tall and stocky as the granite outcrop their town was built on” (Gaiman 4). There is a limited use of color when describing the town of wall, however within the same novel you have the story that takes place in Faerie. Additionally, there is the failure of our main hero, he fails to win the heart of the women intends to marry. He is hit with the harsh realities of life that one cannot have it all, readers expect from a fairytale that the guy always gets the girl they are after, but not in this case. Stardust abandons those classic principles for an unpopular approach and decided that the women our hero deserves is actually a star.
On the contrary, the book equally represents the mythos of summer, in the land of Faerie the setting is lively colorful and full of “wonders for sale, and marvels, and miracles; there were things undreamed of and object unimagined” (Gaiman 19). The novel is filled with plentitude, innocence, and fulfillment, set in an ideal world where problems are romanticized and solved in obscure manners. For instance, the first encounter between someone from the real world and someone from the ideal world is centered around a purchase. In our world we pay for goods and services with something that hold monetary value, money is a huge real world problem whereas if one doesn’t have enough of it, they can’t make a purchase. However, in the land of Faerie a glass flower can be bought with something as simple as a kiss or a memory. These are highly romanticized ways of solving conflict that do not exist in the real world.
A common and reoccurring line that is seen through the book is “(his) heart’s true desire.” This may be the ultimate form of irony seen throughout the novel. It contributes to the overall theme as well as shines a light on the true self of all the characters in the novel. The story begins with the line “There once was a young man who wished to gain his heart’s desire.” Consistently in the novel, the reader is reminded of this line. All characters have a one true hearts’ desire and how they go about obtaining it defines who they are. The princes’ hearts’ desire is to be king. Contrary to popular expectations of what being a prince entitles they believe to achieve their goals they must murder one another until there is only one left standing establishing them as villains. The kingdom sees them as noble and valiant, but the reader knows otherwise. The witches, known only as the Lilum, share a similar desire. The Lilum wish to live forever to do so they need a heart of a star, and in order to get the heart they must charm the star. Behavior like this is unexpected from witches because, one expects a trio of witches to be completely completely evil, and behind closed doors they are however the rest of the people they encounter view them to be sweet old ladies. Both of the villains are unsuccessful in their endeavor for power, according to Propp’s model of a fairytale they can’t win. The only one who is successful in obtaining their “heart’s desire” is Tristian thorn. He embarked on a journey to win the hand of a woman named Victoria, and initially readers find themselves rooting for him, however he doesn’t get it. Gaiman tricks audiences once again with this presentations of situational irony. What we expect to happen, never does. Instead Tristin wins the heart of the star and becomes king. Gaiman teaches audiences through these twists of events that if your heart isn’t pure than you will not be successful. Gaiman uses the quote as the theme of the novel as its encompasses the overall message being conveyed in the story. The simple single line is symbol of the experience captured in the text; this is because it is a constant reoccurring line that is believed to mean one thing and then is revealed to be another (Culler 266). He still adheres to Propp’s model for a fairytale and so the ending is in correspondence with the rules of a folk tale, but yet on the surface it is not what we expected. Readers thought that they knew Tristian’s heart’s desire was to marry Victoria, but Gaiman quickly contradicts this.

Additionally, there are two other mythoi that describe genre and they are the mythos of autumn and spring.

The mythos of autumn is a transitional piece of literature that goes from “summer” into “winter.” Frye describes this as the genre of tragedy, in that there is a movement from the ideal world to the real world; likewise, the mythos of spring involves a movement from the ideal world back to the real world (Tyson 210). If genres are the seasons, then Stardust’s physical structure of the wall that divides the lands acts an equinox. When the hero of the tale, Tristian, crosses over the wall there is a shift in genre. When crossing from the land of Faerie back into the town of Wall, his intentions were to deliver a piece of the star to woman called Victoria and in return he’d get his “heart’s true desire.” So Tristian cuts a piece of silver hair from the star to bring her as proof that he found it. He is confident, but upon meeting with the beautiful Victoria- the lock of hair turns to a handful of stardust. It is now that Tristian realizes that the two world can never meet. When Tristian originally crossed over into the land of Faerie however, he life was then filled with color. This transition as aforementioned is referred to as the mythos of spring and it concerns itself with the genre of comedy (210). A comedy features a protagonist with real world problems, the villains of comedies are often absurd and humorous. One of the villains of Stardust is a band of prince’s

fighting for the throne of their kingdom. Whilst the princes are inherently evil, which is unexpected by princes in a fairytale, they are still strange. For example, the princes all must kill each other till there is one of them left to ascend the throne. After killing each other off one by one they become ghosts who watch the endeavors of their brothers, hey cannot move on until a new king is crowned. The interaction between the princes in the ghost realm is humorous; the princes act like children although make no mistake they are in fact grown men.
To finalize, Stardust by Neil Gaiman is the classic fairytale that we all know. It follows every function of Propp’s model for a fairy tale, the beginning and end of the novel is predictable. However, on the surface, the novel is foreign to readers who are familiar with fairy tales. The surface of the novel is filled with irony, from the setting to the characters to the overall theme of the novel. By using unconventional elements of stories, Gaiman creates a new fairytale that audiences enjoy, it appears to be refreshing whilst still being the same story that has been told for many years.