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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 1. A Discovery
Explanation and Analysis—Helen Getting Remarried:
Near the beginning of the novel, Helen tells Mrs. Markham that she (Helen) will never get remarried. This is an example of situational irony as she goes on to marry Gilbert. Here Mrs. Markham recounts the conversation with Helen:
"Though you are alone now, you will not be always so; you have been married, and probably – I might say almost certainly – will be again." "You are mistaken there ma’am," said [Helen], almost haughtily; "I am certain I never shall." – But I told her I knew better.
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Chapter 16. The Warnings of Experience
Explanation and Analysis—Mrs. Maxwell's Warning:
Near the beginning of Helen’s diary entries—before she has met Arthur—she recounts a conversation with her aunt Mrs. Maxwell in which her aunt warns her against choosing to marry a man for superficial reasons, such as for his good looks and agreeable personality:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“If you should marry the handsomest and most accomplished and superficially agreeable man in the world, you little know the misery that would overwhelm you, if, after all, you should find him to be a worthless reprobate, or even an impracticable fool.”
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Explanation and Analysis—Poor Fools:
When Helen’s aunt Mrs. Maxwell tries to warn her about marrying a man who appears to be a good match but is actually a “reprobate” (or immoral person) or “fool,” Helen responds by teasing her aunt, using verbal irony in the process, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“If you should marry the handsomest, and most accomplished and superficially agreeable man in the world, you little know the misery that would overwhelm you, if, after all, you should find him to be a worthless reprobate, or even an impracticable fool.”
“But what are all the poor fools and reprobates to do, aunt? If everybody followed your advice the world would soon come to an end.”
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Chapter 20. Persistence
Explanation and Analysis—Pious Arthur:
When Helen tells Arthur during their courtship that her aunt Mrs. Maxwell does not approve of him because she wants Helen to marry “a really good man,” Arthur understands that she means a man more devoted to his Christian faith. In his response to Helen, Arthur sarcastically commits to becoming more like a man Mrs. Maxwell would approve of, using verbal irony and a simile in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“She wishes me to – to marry none but a really good man.”
“What, a man of ‘decided piety?’ – ahem! – Well, come, I’ll manage that too! It’s Sunday today, isn’t it? I’ll go to church morning, afternoon, and evening, and comport myself in such a godly sort that she shall regard me with admiration and sisterly love […] I’ll come home sighing like a furnace, and full of the savour and unction of dear Mr Blatant’s discourse –”
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Chapter 27. A Misdemeanor
Explanation and Analysis—Arthur and Anabella:
Early in Arthur and Helen’s marriage, Helen witnesses Arthur sitting with Annabella and kissing her hand and later confronts him about it. In an example of situational irony, Arthur denies that he is interested in Annabella and—going even further—says that he will never be seriously interested in anyone else:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Will you never learn?” he continued more boldly, "that you have nothing to fear from me? that I love you wholly and entirely? – or if,” he added with a lurking smile, “I ever give a thought to another, you may well spare it, for those fancies are here and gone like a flash of lightning, while my love for you burns on steadily, and for ever like the sun.”
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Explanation and Analysis—Helen the Angel:
One of the metaphors that appears periodically throughout The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is that of Helen being an angel. For example, in Chapter 27, after Helen witnesses Arthur secretly kiss Annabella’s hand, Arthur says that Helen is an angel while Annabella is a mortal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“She is a daughter of earth; you are an angel of heaven; only be not too austere in your divinity, and remember that I am a poor, fallible mortal.”
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Chapter 29. The Neighbour
Explanation and Analysis—Hargrave's Reputation:
In an example of foreshadowing, Helen writes in her diary that she has suspicions about Hargrave’s character even as he acts like a gentleman in front of her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He seemed bent upon doing the honours of his house in the most unexceptionable manner, and exerting all his powers for the entertainment of his guest, and the display of his own qualifications as a host, a gentleman, and a companion; and actually succeeded in making himself very agreeable – only that he was too polite. – And yet, Mr Hargrave, I don’t much like you; there is a certain want of openness about you that does not take my fancy, and a lurking selfishness, at the bottom of all your fine qualities, that I do not intend to lose sight of.
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Chapter 39. A Scheme of Escape
Explanation and Analysis—Helen the Angel:
One of the metaphors that appears periodically throughout The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is that of Helen being an angel. For example, in Chapter 27, after Helen witnesses Arthur secretly kiss Annabella’s hand, Arthur says that Helen is an angel while Annabella is a mortal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“She is a daughter of earth; you are an angel of heaven; only be not too austere in your divinity, and remember that I am a poor, fallible mortal.”
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Chapter 44. The Retreat
Explanation and Analysis—Brilliant Specimens:
In a note at the end of Helen’s diary entries, Gilbert describes how the the rest of the pages are torn away right when she starts to describe her seemingly negative initial opinions of him. In reflecting on why Helen might have judged him so severely, Gilbert uses verbal irony, describing the men in her life as “brilliant specimens":
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here it ended. The rest was torn away. How cruel – just when she was going to mention me! for I could not doubt it was your humble servant she was about to mention, though not very favourably of course – I could tell that, as well by those few words as by the recollection of her whole aspect and demeanour towards me in the commencement of our acquaintance. Well! I could readily forgive her prejudice against me, and her hard thoughts of our sex in general, when I saw to what brilliant specimens her experience had been limited.
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Chapter 52. Fluctuations
Explanation and Analysis—Gilbert's Assumptions:
In two of the most ironic and dramatic moments in the novel, Gilbert makes assumptions about Helen that turn out to be untrue. First, he assumes incorrectly that Helen is Frederick’s lover (and that Frederick is little Arthur’s father) and goes as far as to publicly whip Frederick almost to death based on this false assumption.
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