Situational Irony In Maupassant's The Necklace

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Surprise is a product of situational irony. However, emotions ranging from humour to depressing can also be created by situational irony. Guy de Maupassant's “The Necklace” and O Henry’s “ The Ransom of Red Chief” utilize situational irony to produce emotions other than surprise, like pity and humour. Maupassant uses the irony in the miss bringings of Mathilde Loisel to produce pity while O Henry uses the irony of the situations to create humour. While stories with situational irony end off with happy notes, “The Necklace” differs.
The situational irony in Guy de maupassant’s “The Necklace” forms pity towards Madame and Monsieur Loisel. Mathilde Loisel feels as if she belongs with the rich, but by bad fortune she is in the upper middle class. …show more content…
Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” creates humour and pity towards Sam and Bill. As Sam and Bill kidnap Red Chief, they realize he is no ordinary child. Their suspicions are correct as they see Red Chief’s devilish and energetic side. In one hand, Red Chief had Bill’s hai, “ In the other hand he had the sharp case knife for slicing bacon; and he was realistically trying to take Bill’s scalp”(42). Red Chief tries to scalp Bill for the “fun” of it. On the other hand, Bill and Sam treat Red Chief to bacon, gravy and bread. They do not starve, torture, or harm Red chief as stereotypical criminals do. Another instance where humour is formed from situational irony is when instead of Dorset paying ransom to get Red Chief back, the criminals pay Dorset to get rid of Red Chief. As Dorset sends a letter of a counter ransom to the criminals, the wonder if it is really worth it to keep Red Chief. Bill begs Sam to accept the offer and move on which causes Sam to say,”’Tell you the truth Bill,” says I,”This little he-ewe lamb has somewhat got on my nerves too, we’ll take him, pay the ransom, and make our getaway”(53). Bill and Sam pay Dorset a ransom to get rid of Red Chief creating a tone of humour. The use of situational irony creates a tone of humour and pity towards Sam and
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