Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment: Situational Irony 1 key example

Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Four Venerable Friends :

The story begins with an introduction of the principal cast of characters in language that implies social respectability and wisdom. But then the narrator undercuts this implication in an ironic twist:

THAT very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four venerable friends to meet him in his study. There were three white-bearded gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, and a withered gentlewoman, whose name was the Widow Wycherly.