The Ambitious Guest is a highly symbolic American short story written in the 19th century by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a famous American novelist, Dark Romantic and short story writer. His most famous works are The Scarlet Letter, Twice Told Tales, The Marble Faun and The House of the Seven Gables. His works are often loaded with symbolism, irony and psychological aspects of humanity. The Ambitious Guest is about a lonely traveler who is welcomed by a generous family, in the warmth of their home near the old mountain. They sit and talk about desires and death. Then, the mountain betrays their feeling of safety by collapsing and killing them while they are rushing into their cave of sanctuary. The first major technique is symbolism. The family is a symbol of warmth. First of all, they are always in solitude, which ties them together even more. “Though they dwelt in such a solitude, these people held daily converse with the world.” Moreover, they are very welcoming to the lonely guest who they have met for the first time. "The whole family rose up, grandmother, …show more content…
It’s ironic that fate brings the guest to this dangerous place and time, to share his ambitions right before he dies. The irony is increased by the fact that his ambitions cause the family members to confess their ambitions too. Amusingly enough, the grandmother’s ambition is to have a good funeral and to look good in her coffin. The family, ironically, lives in the shadow of a mountain that keeps sending them clear signals that they are going to die. “He sometimes nods his head and threatens to come down.” It’s ironic that when the mountain falls, their place of safety turns out to be their death trap. In addition, the biggest irony lies within the title; the stranger who has great hopes that he wishes to attain before his death, dies without fulfilling any of them, without leaving any trace of his own life as
In “Invitation to a Murder” by Josh Pachter, situational irony is used an extremity of times. The first example comes from the title of the story. Eleanor Abbott pre-planned for there to be 12 renowned men in the criminal justice system invited to witness the death of her husband! Once they were there, she planned to blame them on his death! This is ironic since these men are busy fighting murder, and here they are about to be blamed for one! The following example comes in when the men come over to the Abbott household.
“The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.” -Robert A. Heinlein. In the short story, “The Possibility of Evil”, the author Shirley Jackson uses irony to develop the traits of the protagonist, Miss Strangeworth, in her small hometown. Throughout the story, there are many examples of irony as Miss Strangeworth goes through her normal day. Irony is an engaging literary device used by authors to expose underlying intentions which become critical to the development of the plot.
The purpose of this irony is to shock the reader, since ironic things are by definition unexpected, it works well as a twist in the story.
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism several times in the book, The Scarlet Letter. Some examples of this are when they talk of the scaffold, the brook, the forest, and the sunshine. The one that I will discuss is the sunshine. Hawthorne uses sunshine in the novel to symbolize purity and hope several times throughout the book. In one scene of the book, Pearl requests that Hester grab some sunshine and give it to her to play with. Hester then replies, "No, my little Pearl! Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee." (p.104) Hester has no sunshine to give Pearl because she has committed adultery and is not pure. Another example is when Hester and Pearl are taking a walk through the forest when a dark cloud came over the sky and Pearl said, "Mother," said little Pearl, "the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom." Pearl says this just innocently playing around, not having a clue of exactly how right she is. She says that the sun fears the "A" and avoids the impurity of it at all costs, even disappearing from the sky. Later in that walk, Hawthorne again shows how the sun refuses to be around Hester and her sin. Hester tells Pearl to run off and catch the sun and so she sets off at a great pace and, in her innocence, she seemingly catches it and stands right in the midst of it. Hester comes over and attempts to come over bask in the sunshine and Pearl says, while shaking her head, "It will go now." Hester replies, "See! Now I can stretch out my hand and grasp some of it," but "As she attempted to do so, the sunshine vanished." This shows how the sun, being pure, adorned the Pearl in her innocence, while it shunned Hester for her impurity. Hawthorne shows the symbol of sunshine best in the chapter appropriately titled, "A Flood of Sunshine." In this particular scene, Dimmesdale and Hester are discussing what Dimmesdale will do about the current situation with their relationship. Dimmesdale announces that he will leave the community, and he must do it alone. In the heat of the moment Hester declares that he will not have to go alone, and she takes off her bonnet and throws down the
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes imagery to convey that Dimmesdale can represent Puritan Society rather than the round character that can be seen on the surface level. This is seen through the imagery and symbolism of hypocrisy, Dimmesdale as a Christ figure, and the scarlet letter.
In any novel worth reading there is use of basic rhetorical devices like symbolism, allusions, etc. Nathaniel Hawthorne viewed strongly abroad as excellent author for many reasons but none as prevalent as his use of symbolism. Hawthorne uses repetition, motifs and symbolism to poetically approximate allusions almost within every word of his book “The Scarlet Letter”. Symbolism is the adhesive in “The Scarlet Letter”, other than maintaining the reader’s interest, it also makes allusions to other famous works such as the bible, and he uses it to transition the exposition throughout the book. A white man standing next to an Indian was wearing “… clad in a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume” (45) symbolizing the linimal position of the character in the story and in life. Although this symbol has one clear layer it also has a bi-layer to represent a different meaning. The matter that Hawthorne forms epic amounts of symbol s would have formed a problem if he hadn’t made it easy to depict the differences between his concrete symbols and his abstract symbols through repetit...
A symbol is an object used to stand for something else. Symbolism has a hidden meaning lying within it; these meanings unite to form a more detailed theme. Symbolism is widely used in The Scarlet Letter to help the reader better understand the deep meanings Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays throughout his novel. He shows that sin, known or unknown to the community, isolates a person from their community and from God. Hawthorne also shows this by symbols in nature around the town, natural symbols in the heavens, and nature in the forest.
... When she is picked, she begins to yell that the process is unfair. So, for her the lottery is an example of dramatic irony. Something that she thought unimportant becomes fatal for her. When the reader learns at the end of the story that the "prize" is death, is certainly situational irony.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” irony is an underlying theme used throughout the story. The setting is introduced as a “clear and sunny” day, but ends with the brutal death of a housewife (715). The two people who essentially run the town, Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers, also have ironic names. In addition, the characters and the narrator make ironic statements throughout the story.
...hese characters we better and more pure, bad things would might have not happened to them like they did. In this situation, cosmic irony is used to show how someone’s fate can be decided by the life decisions they make. It was only destiny that brought the Misfit and the family together.
Irony is used very often by Poe. Irony is when something occurs that is the exact opposite of how it should be or seem. Irony varies in that it may be displayed through someone’s actions or an ironic happening. An example of irony in someone’s action are in the Cask of Amontillado is when Montressor repeatedly seems concerned for Fortunato’s health, even though his real intentions are to kill him. It also may be considered ironic that Poe named the enemy of Monstressor, Fortunato. Being that Fortunato means fortunate or lucky in Italian, it is ironic that he is very unlucky in that he his buried alive in a wall.
Symbolism plays an important role in the Scarlet Letter. The scarlet "A" is used to represent sin and anguish along with happiness. The "A" has different meanings to people other than what was originally intended. The scaffold is used as a place of repentance and judgment by God. Pearl is another major symbol used as a reminder of the scarlet letter.
It is no secret that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a parable. Hawthorne intended it as such and even gave the story the subtitle “a parable.” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” however, was not Hawthorne’s only parable. Hawthorne often used symbols and figurative language to give added meaning to the literal interpretations of his work. His Puritan ancestry also influenced much of Hawthorne’s work. Instead of agreeing with Puritanism however, Hawthorne would criticize it through the symbols and themes in his stories and parables. Several of these symbols and themes reoccur in Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “Young Goodman Brown”, and The Scarlet Letter.
Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenment of his journey through the woods. Images of darkness, symbolic representations of names and people and the journey through the woods all attribute to Hawthorne's theme of good people sometimes doing bad things.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, known for his use of allegory and symbolism, is now one of the most studied authors. He became famous for his novels and short stories that revealed the portrayal he had of the world. His works have been properly recognized for more than a century. Hawthorne’s perspective of life comes from his history that gave him a sense of inherited guilt. Even with the setbacks during his journey to success, Hawthorne managed to surpass them and become the wonderful writer he is known to be.