Let us remind ourselves that situational irony is based on
plot, and is the term used to describe a sudden twist in the course of events that makes
the precise opposite of what we expect to happen occur. A classic example would be a
rags-to-riches story in which a poor person suddenly becomes rich at the
end.
If we examine this term in relation to this excellent
tale, we can see that the situational irony relates to Harrison Bergeron's sudden
appearance on the TV show and how it is dealt with. The way in which Harrison bursts
onto the show, crowns himself Emperor and takes one of the dancers for his Empress, then
proceeds to dance in a way that defies gravity itself, leads us to believe that he will
mount a successful revolution against handicapping and end this era of forced equality
and no competition. It is therefore a great shock and surprise to us when this ending
does not occur, and the dance is rudely interrupted:
It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the
Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She
fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the
floor.
The grim situational
irony of this story therefore relates to the way in which Harrison Bergeron's revolution
is cruelly crushed with his violent and sudden murder, and the change that the story
looked to offer us never comes to pass.
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