Help with irony?????????????

Question

Can someone help me find 2 examples of irony in this story.

http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/158/

I don't know what irony is and I already looked up the word and I still don't understand it.

Answer 1

Irony is one of those things that is hard to just read in a dictionary and understand.  It might help you to see some examples of irony:

- When you do one thing but it inadvertantly results in another

- When someone says something but something else happens

- When a character says something with all his heart and doesn't realize that the opposite is true

Example:

A guy is told that one day he will be killed by a tiger.  So from that moment on, he obsessively kills every tiger he sees.  One day he is walking along and sees an iron statue of a tiger in a courtyard.  He shoots it, and the bullet bounces off the statue, killing him.

The irony is that, if he hadn't obsessed about being killed by a tiger, he'd still be alive.

Irony can be funny, tragic, unexpected, sarcastic.

Alanis Morisette has a song "Ironic", here are some examples of irony from the lyrics:

- A man wins the loterry and dies the next day

- You win a free ride after you've already paid

- Good advice that you didn't take

- A death row pardon two minutes too late

- Someone who is afraid to fly waits his whole life and finally gets a plane ticket and the plane crashes

And more:

- People murdering in the name of God

- A brand called "Trusty" that breaks down all the time

- It's beautiful and nice and warm outside but I'm stuck with my heater on at work because everyone cranks up the air conditioner

From the story (I didn't read it too closely so you'll have to check):

- Someone named Faith dying because of her faith, or dying despite her faith

Is this helping?

Answer 2

what definition did you get for the word???