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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
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Methuselah:
After Benjamin is born a 70-year-old man—to the shock of his parents and the hospital staff—his father Roger Button takes him home. On their way home, as they discuss how Roger will refer to Benjamin, Roger makes a biblical allusion, as seen in the following passage:
His son took the hand trustingly. “What are you going to call me, dad?” he quavered as they walked from the nursery—“just ‘baby’ for a while? till you think of a better name?” Mr. Button grunted.
“I don’t know,” he answered harshly. “I think we’ll call you Methuselah.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Hildegarde’s Dream Man:
In an example of dramatic irony, Hildegarde tells Benjamin during their courtship that she is specifically drawn to him because of his mature age, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“You’re just the romantic age,” she continued—“fifty. Twentyfive is too worldly-wise; thirty is apt to be pale from overwork; forty is the age of long stories that take a whole cigar to tell; sixty is—oh, sixty is too near seventy; but fifty is the mellow age. I love fifty.”
Fifty seemed to Benjamin a glorious age. He longed passionately to be fifty.
“I’ve always said,” went on Hildegarde, “that I’d rather marry a man of fifty and be taken care of than marry a man of thirty and take care of him.”
Related Themes:
