Friday, November 8, 2013

What is an example of dramatic irony in "The Monkeys Paw"?

I am struggling to come up with an example of dramatic
irony in this excellent short story. It is certainly a brilliant example of situational
irony, but I don't think we can identify any instance of dramatic irony. Let us remind
ourselves that dramatic irony occurs when the audience, and sometimes one or more
characters, knows a vital piece of information that another character or group of
characters does not. The classic example is of course in Romeo and
Juliet
when we know that Juliet is not dead, and that she is about to wake
up, but Romeo doesn't, and kills himself just before she wakes
up.


The closest we can perhaps come to dramatic irony is
the ending, when we as the audience and Mr. White recognise that what is knocking on the
door is not going to be their son as they remember him, but a hideous, terrifying corpse
that will make them wish that they had never meddled with their fate. The way in which
the mother responds to this knocking shows that she does not understand this,
however:


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"You're afraid of your own son," she cried
struggling. "Let me go. I'm coming Herbert; I'm
coming."



Mr. White's success
in getting to the monkey's paw before his wife manages to open the door shows this
dramatic irony at work, but I don't necessarily think this is a particularly good
example of dramatic irony. This story is a much better example of situational
irony.

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