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Imagery
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Part 2: The Postman: Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Cross Country Running:
Desperate to keep his past under wraps, Jude protects himself with self-spun narratives. This evasiveness often results in dramatic irony, as when his roommates ask him about his legs. In Part 2, Chapter 1, he tiptoes around his friends’ questions:
"You could walk before?" asked Malcolm, as if he could not walk now. And this made him sad and embarrassed: what he considered walking, they apparently did not.
"Yes," he said, and then, because it was true, even if not the way they’d interpret it, he added, "I used to run cross-country."
"Oh, wow," said Malcolm. JB made a sympathetic grunting noise.
Only Willem, he noticed, said nothing. But he didn’t dare open his eyes to look at his expression.
Related Themes:
Part 2: The Postman: Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Stranger to Himself:
Situational irony and portraiture arrive bundled together on Jude’s doorstep in Part 2, Chapter 3. By the time JB grudgingly returns his famed painting to Jude, his friend can barely recognize the subject of the work. His reaction to the portrait is an example of situational ironY:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He no longer felt anything for that person, but not feeling anything for that person had been a conscious act of will, like turning away from someone in the street even though you saw them constantly, and pretending you couldn’t see them day after day until one day, you actually couldn’t—or so you could make yourself believe.
Related Themes:
Part 4: The Axiom of Equality: Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Words Turned Stone:
After JB’s crude imitation of him, Jude struggles to return to good terms with his college roommate. When his longtime friend ends up in the hospital, drugged and delirious, Jude refuses to forgive him. Despite JB’s most urgent pleas, Jude cannot bring himself to accept the apologies. In Part 4, Chapter 1,
The novel expresses his difficulty through an ironic metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He knew he was making JB feel worse; he knew it and was still unable to say it. The words were stones, held just under his tongue. He couldn’t release them, he just couldn’t.
Related Themes:
Part 4: The Axiom of Equality: Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Powerful Powerlessness:
Harold arrives at Greene Street to a sight of vomit and blood in Part 4, Chapter 2. In a stretch of his first-person narration, he recalls this fateful night to Willem in its heartbreaking and violent aftermath. Even more, the law professor puzzles over his son’s complexities and the wildly different sides to his character, which are an example of situational irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+That night, uptown, I had paced in circles, thinking about what I had learned about him, what I had seen, how hard I had fought to keep from howling when I heard him say the things he had—worse than Caleb, worse than what Caleb had said, was hearing that he believed it, that he was so wrong about himself.
Related Themes:
