The Ransom of Red Chief

Write a five paragraph essay explaining the three kinds of irony, and giving at least one example of each kind of irony from the story, “The Ransom of Red Chief” The Humor of the Ransom of Red Chief

“I’ll fix you” say the kid to Bill on page 486 from the Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry. This tall tale is very funny and creates a lot of humor. A tall tale is an improbable story. The reason that it is so funny , because it includes a lot of irony in the story. Irony is witty language used to convey insults or scorn. In The Ransom of Red Chief, O. Henry included three types of irony, verbal, situation and dramatic. The story uses many type of irony; one of them is verbal irony. Verbal irony is an irony that shows something different or opposite things from what is very meant to be. In the Ransom of Red Chief, verbal irony appeared when Sam and Bill compared themselves as wolves and they compared Johnny as a lamb. However, Johnny isn’t a lamb at all; he is such a horrible and aggressive boy. For example, Sam concerned about Johnny’s attitude on page 491 and he say, “this little he-ewe lamb has somewhat got on my nerves too. We’ll take him home, pay the ransom, and make our getaway.” Dramatic irony appears once in the Ransom of Red Chief.

Dramatic irony is an irony when the readers know something that the characters in the story don’t know. Dramatic irony took part when Johnny is just behind Bill, while he told Sam that he sent Johnny the back to his home. After that, Sam asked Bill about medical problem, because he knew that Bill would probably shock when he see the boy again. O. Henry describes that Johnny is right behind Bill, the reader know, but Bill doesn’t know yet. For example, O. Henry used situation irony very frequently in the Ransom of the Red Chief. Situation irony is when something happens different from our expectation. Situation irony used in the story when Johnny’s behavior is too much to deal with so Sam has tell Johnny that if his behavior doesn’t improve, he’ll send Johnny back home. The readers obviously don’t expect the kidnappers to threaten their victim with this kind of word.