katnyss's blog: "The Way Back"

I love the writers who delve into irony, especially the tragic and dramatic irony bordering on the romantic, think Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Some of it is a bit more blatant and known first hand to the reader, others a bit more obscure and not known until the very climatic ending, the big twist to the story. Often we the reader know exactly how it will all end and are powerless to stop the downward spiral other times we are titillated by the happens and are gripped with the delicious knowledge that soon the antagonist will know it too. Irony, a bit witty, a bit sarcastic, but always entertaining. Whilst talking to a friend the other day we were discussing the use of irony in some of our favorite books. I really love that old fashioned word whilst. It should be used whilst sitting around on a sunny afternoon with a group of British friends at the croquet club and drinking a cuppa with scones and clotted cream, saying "Oh Bumpy, do my mind holding my umbrella whilst I slug a shot of Mumzy's gin? No, no not like that, in front of me!" Was that irony or deceit or a bit of both. In order for irony to play out there has to be a jigger of deceit laced with a bit cunning thrown in, however innocent or not.

O. Henry, one of my favorite authors who enjoyed wit and bringing a clever twist to his short stories. In "The Gift of the Magi", young lovers sell their most prized possessions to buy a Christmas gift for the other. He sells his pocket watch to buy his wife combs for her hair and she has her luxuriant tresses cut off and sold to buy him a chain for his watch. The story is twofold in its meaning and a bit ambiguous as well. The story of the three wise men that brought gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child is the basis of the title. Although I am not sure what they did with them, Mary and Joseph packed them onto their small donkey along with the child and carried them to the West Bank to reside for a time, no not London. Those gifts were given freely as well, in adoration. While the wife’s locks will grow back and she can use her combs, her husband’s pocket watch is gone, but their love was selfless and true.

Now, Guy de Maupassant gives irony at its finest in "The Necklace", a short story about a foolish and unhappy woman stuck in her state of lower middle class. Who moans each day of her plight and lowly circumstances in life and longs for the wealth and riches of those few fortunate she see around her.  Having been invited along with her husband to a grand dinner and ball, she pines that she has nothing to wear. Oh where is fairy godmother when you need her? She borrows an elegant diamond necklace from an old school friend who is luckier in life than she is.  Once at the event she preens and struts like a proud peacock and flirts until late into the evening, upon arriving back at the slums, she is horrified to discover that the necklace is no longer around her silly throat. The couple then pull of the big bamboozle by begging, borrowing and going into hock to purchase a replica of the necklace and return it to her unsuspecting friend. Over the course of the next ten years they work their fingers to the bone, age twice as many years as she becomes even more bitter while her life falls into the poverty level. At a chance meeting one day with her wealthy friend, the fact was revealed that the so called opulent necklace that she had borrowed all those years ago was a fake and worthless. The deception was not just in the wasted years covering up the lost necklace but in her desire to be someone she was not. Oh, irony how you do spin your wondrous tales. "There is nothing more deceptive than the obvious fact." ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle