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Similes
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Overpowering the Powerful:
In a key example of situational irony in the story, the people of Kafiristan overpower Dravot and Carnehan, killing Dravot and effectively exiling Carnehan from their country. This is ironic because, to this point, Dravot and Carnehan have been convinced that they are smarter, better armed, and more powerful than the Kafirs could ever be. The irony comes across effectively in the moment that the Kafir people isolate Dravot on a rope bridge and then kill him:
Out he goes, looking neither right nor left, and when he was plumb in the middle of those dizzy dancing ropes, ‘Cut, you beggars,’ he shouts; and they cut, and old Dan fell, turning round and round and round, twenty thousand miles, for he took half an hour to fall till he struck the water, and I could see his body caught on a rock with the gold crown close beside.
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