Rose and a Cask

             An Exploration of the Use of Irony in Literature
             ?A young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout? (Swift).
             Jonathan Swift's essay, A Modest Proposal is a terrific example of the use of irony and satire to push an issue further by using irony than it can be when looked at from a more serious point of view. In A Modest Proposal he proposes to pay beggar mothers for their children when the children are a year old in order to provide food for the growing population and in order to control this rampant plague of population growth. Many authors have been using irony as a staple in their writing simply because irony is a more effective tool than seriousness. The tension between appearance and reality, between expectation and outcome; this is the heart of the ironic paper. Irony is divided into three branches, each defining a different element. Dramatic, situational and verbal ironies are each used to define distinct situations. Irony can add entertainment, humor and drama to a story that would otherwise be bland. Irony can change the attitude of a story entirely and can often highlight an idea more dramatically than serious literature can.
             Dramatic irony, the discrepancy between character beliefs and reader knowledge, is often found mixed with elements of horror as it adds suspense to a work. In Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, as Fortunato states,The cough is a mere nothing, it will not kill me, I shall not die of a cough,? we know that he in fact will die from the dampness in the tombs. It is ironic that Fortunato was the one who suggested they go into the catacombs, to his death and he is asked 8 times to return before he is entombed. Mrs. Mallard of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hourbreathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only ...

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Rose and a Cask. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 21:50, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/77403.html