Irony Sad

“The essential feature of irony is the indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs. In the figure of speech, emphasis is placed on the opposition between the literal and intended meaning of a statement or story.” (definition).
In the short story “The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, describes the emotions of Louise Mallard experiences after hearing of the death of her husband, who was considered to die in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard has heart problems and for that reason her sister tries to inform her of the awful news in a gentle way. After hearing the awful news she locks herself in her room to grieve for her husband. While she was sobbing, she looked out of her window and realized how beautiful the outside was. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves (338).” She realized that she was free from her husband and a delight of her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard told Josephine to "Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.” That’s when Louise’s overjoyed started, when she first murmurs, “"Free! Body and soul free!" to herself (338). Irony she goes out to her of her room to find her husband coming in the front door. She drops dead from a heart attack. This story is a perfect example of dramatic irony. “Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.” (Definition). We know what cause her heart attack, which was the appearance of her husband back in her live. Josephine, Richards (her husband friend), and of course her husband thought it was the joy of having her husband back.

In the story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a tragic irony that can also be a type of dramatic irony. In tragic irony, a character's actions lead to significances that are both tragic, and contrary to the character's desire and intentions. Poe’s tales are known to have a lack of evidence that convoys with Montresor’s claims to Fortunato’s “thousand injuries” and “insult.” This story contains revenge and a secret murder that Montresor kept over 50 years without putting his vengeance out there. Montresor, tells us from the beginning of the story that he has been irreparably insulted by one of his ally, Fortunato, and that he pursues for his desire for retaliation. He also tells us that Fortunato affection for wine. He tells Fortunato that he has attained something that could pass for “Amontillado, a light Spanish sherry.” Fortunato is anxious to taste the wine and go to Montresor’s vaults to determine whether or not it is truly Amontillado. Montresor tells Fortunato, who has a bad cough, of the damp, and implies they go back. One iron part of this story is when Fortunato persists on continuing, claiming that he  “shall not die of a cough, (526)” Montresor replies, “True,” because he knows that Fortunato will in fact die from dehydration and starvation in the crypt. Thought out the catacombs, Montresor offers wine, irony he choose “De Grave” (name of the wine), to give to Fortunato. Montresor walks up to the niche, where he intends to bury alive Fortunato by immurement. “Immurement is a form of execution where a person is walled up within a building and left to die from starvation or dehydration. This is distinct from being buried alive, in which the victim typically dies of asphyxiation” (definition). Montresor ends the story by saying, “In pace requiescat!” which means "May he rest in peace!"

In both stories have a sense of irony in them; whether it is a tragic irony or dramatic irony. 

The Yellow Wallpaper! (blog 2)

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman Perkins, is a story in which the narrator writes to herself.  Gilman told her story in first-person narration, coverage events from inside the narrator’s head. In this story Gilman is a new mother suffering from what we might today call 'post-partum depression,' is diagnosed with a nervous disorder. Her physician husband, John, have rented a mansion for the summer so that she can recover from a “slight hysterical tendency.” Although the narrator does not believe that she is actually ill, John is persuaded that she is suffering from “neurasthenia” and recommends the “rest cure” treatment.

The narrator is reflected an unreliable narrator since the story is told only from her point of view in a sequence of secretly written journal entries. The narrator is an example of an unreliable narrator.  We only see the events through her writing. She is constricted to bed rest in a former nursery room and is forbidden from working or writing. She is forced to become absolutely passive, prohibited from exercising her mind in any way. Writing is especially off limits, and John advises her numerous times that she must use her self-control to rein in her imagination, which he fears will run away with her. She is keeping a secret journal, which she describes, more than once as a “relief” to her mind.

With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper, “It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw--not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. (571).” And the way she express herself in great details like this, “I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.  It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight (566).” The narrator hates the wallpaper, but John refuses to change rooms, arguing that the nursery is best suited for her recovery.

The reliability of the narrator relies during the course of the story to the narrator’s condition. Gilman knows that she is not well and this makes her reliable. Later, she says, John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious. “I am glad my case is not serious,” at a point when it is clear that she is concerned that her case is very serious indeed. “But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness  (566).”

More days’ pass, the narrator grows more and more anxious and depressed. The wallpaper keeps her only stimulation, and she spends the larger part of her time studying its confusing patterns. Her reliability fades when she says, “ It creeps all over the house. I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs. It gets into my hair. Even when I go to ride, if I turn my head suddenly and surprise it--there is that smell! 
Such a peculiar odor, too! I have spent hours in trying to analyze it, to find what it smelled like. It is not bad--at first, and very gentle, but quite the subtlest, most enduring odor I ever met. In this damp weather it is awful, I wake up in the night and find it hanging over me. It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house--to reach the smell. But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell (571).” She also begins to notice that the distinct "yellow smell" of the wallpaper has spread over the house, following her even when she goes for rides.

This is specific example indicate that the narrator’s version might not accurately reflect the events in the story, “Of course I never mention it to them any more--I am too wise… There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will…and it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder--I begin to think--I wish John would take me away from here! (569)” The narrator creates the appearance that she is mentally strange. She talks about how she locked herself in the room and trown away the key for no one to go in or out. She tried to move her bed to help her peel the wallparer off, which did not move. so then she got so angry that she bit off a little piece at one corner of her bed which made her teeth hurt. All of this for a wallpaper that she did not like. 

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