Isn’t it ironic that two stories could have separate accounts

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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Isn?t it ironic that two stories could have separate accounts of irony, but still have similar characters? Irony could occur in everyday life. Sometimes in life, we could expect something wonderful to happen, but then find out something that is total opposite of what we had anticipated. In ?The Necklace? by Guy de Maupassant, the main character Mathilde Loisel was born into a middle class family, yet she often envied the upper society. She had attended a high society event that changed her life forever. In ?The Cask of Amontillado? by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character Fortunato, was played for a fool when his friend Montressor led him to his death. This essay will discuss the kinds of irony found in both ?The Necklace? and ?The Cask of Amontillado?; it will also show connections between Mathilde of ?The Necklace? and Fortunato of ?The Cask of Amontillado.? The first type of irony found in the ?The Necklace? is called situational.

This kind of irony is when we expect one thing to happen, but something else does. Mathilde attended a high society party for just one night; however, this party had changed her society class status forever. Another example is when Mathilde borrowed a necklace from her friend. When she was looking through the jewelry, ?[a]ll at once she found, in a black satin box, a superb diamond necklace??(32,1,2) unfortunately, it had turned out to be a fake. The comparison of genuine verse in genuine was present through the story.

Yet another example of situational irony is found in Poe?s ?The Cask of Amontillado.? We think that the story will be based on this cask of wine but in fact, the title of the story is a play on words for it is the cask, which leads Fortunato to his...