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Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Book 2, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Isak’s Return:
Pachinko avoids emotional excess but packs a gut punch. At its most brutal moments, the novel chronicles the worst of human misfortunes and cruelties. That is the case when Noa returns home in Book 2, Chapter 4 one afternoon dramatic irony couples with pathos to heart-wrenching effect:
The man was sobbing now, and Noa felt bad for him. There were many poor people on the street, but no one looked as bad as this man. The beggar’s face was covered with sores and black scabs. Noa reached into his pocket and pulled out the coin. Afraid that the man might grab his leg, Noa stepped just close enough to place the coin on the floor near the man’s hand.
Noa’s encounter with Isak could not be any more tragic. Beaten, scabby, and deformed, Isak has been tortured in prison beyond even his son’s recognition. The narrator reveals the brutal scale of his suffering, sketching an almost graphic parody of the once “beautiful young man.” “Black scabs” and “jutting cheekbones” have ruined his former fine features, while his elbows resemble “sharp tree branches” beneath his clothes, and his lower teeth have “cracked off entirely.” These gruesome descriptions can only hint at the cruelty of Isak’s prison conditions, feeding directly into the scene’s heartache.
The dramatic irony makes this scene only more pitiful. In the moment, both Noa and the reader no longer recognize the “gaunt and filthy” “beggar” who stumbles thief-like into the house. Isak has been transformed to the point that he has lost his humanity, deprived of the most basic comforts that come with sympathy and briefly cast out by those closest to him.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Noa's Father:
Pachinko builds dramatic irony when Yoseb arrives at Tamaguchi’s farm. In Book 2, Chapter 8, Noa’s burned uncle comes upon an uncomfortable discovery as Hansu tends to him:
Despite his well-tailored suit and highly polished leather brogues, Hansu appeared at ease in the barn, indifferent to the harsh smells of the animals and the cold drafts.
Yoseb said, ‘You’re the father of the boy, aren’t you?’…‘That’s why you do all this,’ [...]
Yoseb’s discovery escalates one of the novel’s central tensions. Having previously decided that Sunja was “harmed through no fault of her own,” Yoseb now joins the reader in recognizing the identity of Noa’s father. As Hansu’s presence continues shadowing the Baek family, the story hurtles toward this uneasy truth. “You have no business being around [Noa],” Yoseb warns Hansu in an effort to defend his brother’s memory. He, Sunja, and the reader have come to realize Noa’s paternity. Noa himself does not.
Yoseb joins a growing cast of characters who uncover Noa’s paternity, a truth whose dawning clarity emphasizes both Noa’s obliviousness and his tortured denial. For the reader, Noa’s eventual discovery seems all but inevitable. Akiko’s tactless admission merely becomes a matter of time. Here on Tamaguchi’s barn floor, Yoseb picks up on cues that will culminate in Noa’s suicide.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Mieko’s Cruelty:
Dramatic irony comes to the fore in Book 2, Chapter 20, as Sunja searches desperately for Noa across the city. Standing on the palatial doorsteps of Hansu’s mansion, she begs his wife and gets casually brushed aside:
Hansu’s wife, Mieko, nodded. The beggar was no doubt a Korean who wanted money…
Mieko turned to the servant girl, ‘Give her what she wants and send her away. There’s food in the kitchen if she is hungry.’ This was what her husband would do. Her father had also believed in hospitality toward the poor.
Mieko passes over her husband’s former lover without so much as a glance. Patronizingly, she dismisses the lady on her doorstep as just another “shameless” Korean. The “beggar was no doubt a Korean who wanted money,” she thinks to herself, even though readers themselves may beg to differ. Mieko overlooks the woman who may have even closer ties to Hansu than she does herself. Caught in a loveless marriage, Mieko merely assume the worst about her unexpected guest.
This kind of ironic thoughtlessness sharpens the contours of her cruelty. Mieko not only misrecognizes the woman on her doorstep but also goes so far as to believe that she is doing the woman a favor by offering kitchen scraps. Mieko’s haughty obliviousness arguably hurt Sunja more than any calculated act of cruelty. Like Tamaguchi’s spoiled children, Mieko's fault may lie less in deliberate ill-will than a basic refusal to think.
Related Themes:
