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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
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The “Housekeeper”:
In an example of dramatic irony, Robin fails to recognize that the scarlet-clad woman he meets while walking the streets of Boston is a sex worker, instead believing her half-hearted story that she is Major Molineux’s housekeeper (a story she tells to lure him inside her house). The irony comes across in the following passage, when Robin first calls to the woman:
All that Robin could discern was a strip of scarlet petticoat, and the occasional sparkle of an eye, as if the moonbeams were trembling on some bright thing.
“Pretty mistress,”—for I may call her so with a good conscience, thought the shrewd youth, since I know nothing to the contrary—"my sweet pretty mistress, will you be kind enough to tell me whereabouts I must seek the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?”
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Explanation and Analysis—Despised Major Molineux:
The situational irony at the heart of “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” is the fact that Robin arrives in Boston believing his cousin Major Molineux to be a highly revered leader in the community, only to discover at the end of the story that his cousin is so deeply despised that he has been tarred and feathered by a militant mob before being paraded through the streets. The irony of this reveal comes across in the following passage, as Robin first spies Major Molineux at the center of the parade:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A moment more, and the leader thundered a command to halt; the trumpets vomited a horrid breath, and held their peace; the shouts and laughter of the people died away, and there remained only a universal hum, nearly allied to silence. Right before Robin’s eyes was an uncovered cart. There the torches blazed the brightest, there the moon shone out like day, and there, in tar-and-feathery dignity, sate his kinsman, Major Molineux!
Related Themes:
