Irony In The Ransom Of Red Chief

Irony is something many authors use to create suspense and humor. It can be developed through word choice and tone. Word choice develops tone along with with events in the story. Irony is something that can make tone stronger. In the story, “The Ransom of Red Chief’ written by O. Henry. Henry uses irony throughout his story to develop a humorous tone. Tone is when the reader feels a specific way towards the story. The reader would find the story funny because of how irony is used in it. Both sitional and verbal irony are used throughout the story to develop a humorous tone. Verbal irony is used in many instances in the story to create humor. One of the first instances of situational irony is when the “would be” kidnappers first carry little “Red Chief” off to their lair. The reader expects the kidnappers to have the urge to keep the child. However, the kidnappers do not behave as the reader would expect, instead they are
One example is when the kidnappers first take the child and no one reacts to him being stolen. One kidnapper knows something is wrong and that he is getting into a problem. So he soon implies, “it has not yet been discovered that the wolves have borne away the tender lambkin from the fold. Heaven help the wolves! Says i and i went down the mountain for breakfast. (Henry 3)” This creates humor because readers would think that the kidnappers would not be in trouble but even the kidnappers know they are. Another example of verbal irony is when one kidnapper explains, “Me? Says I. ‘Oh, i got a kind of pain in my shoulder. I thought sitting up would rest it’ ‘You’re a liar! (Henry 3)” The reader would think that there is an actual pain in his shoulder instead of nothing. When the other kidnapper says he is lying, it reveals that the other kidnapper was lying and his shoulder did not hurt at all. This creates a humorous tone because the kidnapper proves the other kidnapper