Skip to main content

In "A Jury of Her Peers," what is ironic about the method that was used to kill the victim?

Mr. Wright was found dead in his bed with a rope around his neck. As the story unfolds, the irony of the way he died becomes clearer. Three types of irony related to the cause of death are apparent. Situational irony refers to events that are the opposite of what one might expect. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows something that a character doesn't know. Verbal irony refers to the use of words to mean the opposite of their literal meaning. 


First, that Mr. Wright would be strangled in his bed with a rope is ironic--unexpected--for several reasons. There was a gun in the home, and anyone who wanted to murder the man could have done so more quickly and easily with the gun. Second, that he didn't wake up while the rope was being put around his neck is unusual. Third, the method of death was like a hanging, a way to administer justice to a wrong-doer, yet the man was murdered, so the one who was administering the "justice" would be the wrong-doer--making for an ironic role reversal of the victim and perpetrator. 


Dramatic irony comes in when the women discover clues that the men--the sheriff and county attorney--don't know about. Readers learn that Minnie Wright was knotting a quilt--drawing a connection with the knot she tied around her husband's neck. The women discover the canary with a broken neck and conclude that Mr. Wright broke the innocent bird's neck, revealing that the method of Wright's execution was poetic--or ironic--justice for his brutality. The act of violence toward the bird represents the larger pattern of abuse that Wright perpetrated on his wife. The murderer killed him by "slipping a thing round his neck that choked the life out of him," but he was guilty in a different way of choking the life out of his wife over a period of twenty years. 


Finally, verbal irony surrounds the method of death. The men mock the women for debating whether Minnie was going to quilt or knot the squares of her quilt together. The innocent knot associated with quilting is ironic when juxtaposed with the deadly hangman's knot around Mr. Wright's neck. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more