Short Story Situational Irony free essay sample

Situational irony is when a character’s actions have the opposite of their intended effect. There are clear instances of situational irony found in the short stories, â€Å"Prodigal Son†, â€Å"The Gift of the Magi†, and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†. All of these stories have characters that found themselves in an unexpected circumstance. The biblical story, â€Å"Prodigal Son†, is about a father who plans to leave his sons an inheritance after he dies but his younger son asked his father for his share of the fortune early. The son was granted his money but knew he could no longer claim his family as his own. The young man moves to another country and lives a lavish lifestyle that only lasted a short while. He soon ran out of money and was starving during a famine. The son returns to his father, not asking for forgiveness or to be called his son, but asking to work as his father’s servant. We will write a custom essay sample on Short Story Situational Irony or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Prepared to live amongst the pigs, the son was shocked by his father’s warm welcome. His father dressed him in a fine robe, a ring and shoes. There was a fattened calf for the son and all his friends to feast on at his party to welcome him home. The son’s plea to live as a servant and stay with the pigs after being selfish and greedy was ironic because his father was joyed by his return and gave him more than expected. The son thought he would return to be a worker and was happily surprised to return to be accepted back by his father. â€Å"The Gift of the Magi†, by O. Henry, is about a couple that was living a modest life but wanted to buy something special for each other on Christmas. Della only had $1. 87 to buy Jim a gift and she needed a way to come up with more money. She found place that was willing to buy hair. Della had long, flowing hair that beautifully cascaded down to her knees and she took much pride in it but she cut it off to sell for twenty dollars. Della now had enough money to buy Jim a platinum chain for his cherished gold watch that had been in his family for generations. Jim came home later that night and was surprised to see Della with no hair. She was hurt by the look he gave her because she only cut her hair off for him but she didn’t know the real reason why he was looking at her that way. When she opened her gift from Jim, she was surprised with a set of beautiful combs she has had her eye on for a very long time. Jim had to sell his watch to buy her the combs, so he had no watch for his chain and she had no hair for her combs. The presents they bought for each other showed love and sacrifice and that’s better than any gift money could buy. The situational irony is that Della was selfless in giving up what she loved in order to give Jim something to better his most precious belonging just to find out he did the same for her. In the short story, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, there is a woman who’s physician husband, John, rented a house for the summer and puts her in an upstairs room so she can recover from temporary nervous depression. John believes if she does not strain herself with work she will rest up and be back to her normal, healthy self. His wife did not agree with this tactic and although she was not happy in the room she was forced to stay in all day, she stayed. She noticed her temper had gotten much worse with John as time went on and she struggled to maintain her happiness being stuck in the room with the ugly yellow wallpaper. After weeks of being cooped up in the dingy room, she started to see things. She saw someone with a broken neck and bulbous eye that crawled all over the walls. She was up with terror every night finding horrifying things hidden in the wallpaper. Eventually she found a woman that seemed to be stuck in the wallpaper. She locked herself in the room and refused to leave once the lease is up. The woman circles the room scratching off the wallpaper in order to set the woman free. Once john goes into the room, he is blown away by the craziness he is witnessing. His wife dragging herself around the room having scratched all the paper off claiming that she is now set free. John’s original intention was to help his wife who was suffering a slight depression and his course of action caused her to go into a complete psychotic breakdown. The irony is that John secluding his wife for her own good was actually the force pushing her downfall. The three short stories discussed are all clear examples of how an author can use situational irony to add an unanticipated twist in the plot. When the characters intentions don’t match the result, it adds a surprise no one was expecting.