The paradox of the situation occurs when the actual outcome of the situation is completely different from what you would expect the outcome to be. For example, a family spends a lot of time and money planning a wonderful birthday party for their mother to show her how much she cares for them.
To be more precise, humorous is a writing task that you can easily see in textbooks. Simply put, it happens when discomfort arises between expectations of something that is going to happen, and what actually happens instead. Thus, things happen that are totally different from what the audience might expect, or the end result may be contrary to what the audience expects. The paradox of the situation often involves sharp contrasts and contradictions. The purpose of humorous situations is to allow readers to distinguish between appearance and reality, and ultimately relates to the plot.
Functions of Situational Irony
The function of situational irony is to place emphasis on important scenes and to make abnormal and unusual images vivid. It creates an unexpected turn at the end of the story, and it makes the audience laugh or cry. Therefore, the ridicule of the situation can be painful or humorous. Often writers use strong word connections to confuse the situation and add new ideas, variations, and embellishments to their works. It can range from very comedian to very sad. Its humorous use often leads to unexpected changes in development plans. Sometimes, these kinds of arguments happen because people identify certain events and situations as wrong or weird.
Examples of Situational Irony from Literature
The following examples are taken from famous authors and their most popular novels, which is accolade and acknowledged the best publication in the world.
1. The Harry Potter Series
The Harry Potter series is one of the most popular novels which everyone has read and enjoyed the series. Through seven novels, the audience believes that Harry can kill Voldemort, the evil lord. However, the audience is thrown off guard near the end of this series when it becomes clear that Harry must allow the evil lord to kill him, so that Voldemort’s soul could become mortal once again. Hence, Harry allows himself to be killed in order to defeat Voldemort, which is exactly the opposite of the audience’s expectations. By using situational irony, Rowling has done a great job of adding a twist to the story to further a complex conflict.
2. The Story of an Hour (By Kate Chopin)
A very famous example in this irony occurred at the end of this short story – The story of an Hour, by kate chopin. In this story, the wife of Mr. Brently somehow comes to know that brently has died in an accident, and now she feels that she is free from all restrictions and can live her life as she wants. However, at the end of the story, her husband appears unexpectedly and seeing him alive she is shocked and dies instantly.
3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (By L. Frank Baum)
The whole story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz presents a case of situational irony. Dorothy goes to the wizard in order to find a way home, only to learn that she is capable of doing so herself. Scarecrow wished to become intelligent, but he discovers himself a perfect genius. Woodsman considers himself as not capable of love; nevertheless he learns that he has a good heart. Lion appears as a coward, and turns out to be extremely fearless and courageous.
4. Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)
Romeo strives to bring out peace between Tybalt and Mercutio, and eventually between the Capulets and the Montagues. However, Mercutio’s death, and subsequently Romeo’s pledge to kill Tybalt, escalate a situation leading to his banishment, and finally to the death of both Romeo and Juliet.
5. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (By T. S. Eliot)
Eliot makes comparison between evenings with “a patient etherized upon a table.” By portraying a beautiful natural image, and comparing it with a painful and difficult medical procedure of the modern world, the poet makes use of situational irony for depicting a natural beauty loss in the corrupted world.
6. The Necklace (By Guy de Maupassant)
This story of de Maupassant’s – The Necklace is an example of situational irony. In this the leading character borrows a necklace from a very rich friend but as luck would have she lost the necklace. She discussed with her husband and they both decided to replace this necklace with another expensive one and despite going thru heavy financial constraints they somehow manage to replace and handed over back to her friend. Years later, when mathilda met her friend again in some occasion she was informed by her friend that the necklace she handed over to Methilda artificial and costume jewelry with no real and expensive gemstones, she was shocked and couldn’t take this trauma.