“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is one of Hemingway’s most acclaimed short stories, as much for its exquisitely sparse writing style as for its expertly rendered existentialist themes. Existentialism is a philosophical movement whose adherents believe that life has no higher purpose and that no higher being exists to help us make sense of it. Instead, humans are left alone to find meaning in the world and their lives. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” the older waiter sums up the despair that drives him and others to brightly lit cafés by saying simply, “It is a nothing.”
The term Lost Generation refers to the writers and artists living in Paris after World War I. The violence of World War I, also called the Great War, was unprecedented and invalidated previous ideas about faith, life, and death. Traditional values that focused on God, love, and manhood dissolved, leaving Lost Generation writers adrift. They struggled with moral and psychological aimlessness as they searched for the meaning of life in a changed world. This search for meaning and these feelings of emptiness and aimlessness reflect some of the principle ideas behind existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical movement rooted in the work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who lived in the mid-1800s. The movement gained popularity in the mid-1900s thanks to the work of the French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus, including Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (1943). According to existentialists, life has no purpose, the universe is indifferent to human beings, and humans must look to their own actions to create meaning, if it is possible to create meaning at all. Existentialists consider questions of personal freedom and responsibility. Although Hemingway was writing years before existentialism became a prominent cultural idea, his questioning of life and his experiences as a searching member of the Lost Generation gave his work existentialist overtones.
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HMWK: You should be familiar with modernist writing and Modernism by now. Irony is a primary characteristic/feature/theme of modernist literature (please see this abstract for a deeper level understanding of Ironic vision in Modern Literature). Your homework is to blog about how a modernist author uses irony to describe a specific character in one of the short stories we’ve read. Remember to do further research on text, here are a few resources:
Literary Commentary on "A Clean Well-Lighted Place"
Annotations on "The Wasteland"
"A Rose for Emily" resources and information
I think that the older waiter in "a Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemmingway is an ironic character. It is ironic how he re-writes the lord's prayer. The irony here is that the prayer is meant to provide comfort but replacing a lot of the words in the prayer with "nada" which implies that it offered no comfort. The Old Waiter also tried to deny his loneliness and similarities with the Old Man by saying that he has insomnia rather than being lonely and/or depressed.
ReplyDeleteIn “A Rose for Emily,” the character of Miss Emily is described using irony. Many aspects about her are ironic, such as her house, her upbringing, her life choices, and her attitude. The first thing about her that’s ironic is her house, which is located in what used to be the respectable part of town, but as time passed became industrialized. In addition to its location, its very appearance seems ironic. With graceful, scrolled columns, cupolas, trimming, and other aspects of nice houses, it aspires to elegance and the upper class. Yet, the house is fading, falling into disrepair. Several townspeople begin to complain that a smell is coming from the house, further indicating its state of decline, although the source of the smell is later explained. Miss Emily’s house is a representation of her character, because even though it holds itself to high standards and used to be a testament to her family’s influence, it has since become dilapidated, which is ironic considering how high and mighty its owners past and present are.
ReplyDeleteIf the appearance of the house is ironic, the character of Miss Emily is even more ironic. Brought up by a father who insisted that Emily was better than most people because of her family’s status, he imprinted his mindset into her. As he died and she became an old maid, this mindset stuck with her, making her unable to marry anyone because of her inherited old-fashioned ideas about social status. When she finally did meet a man she loved, this traditional mindset prevented her from marrying him, and instead she murdered him so she could keep him close without dishonoring her family by marrying a man who had a very low social status. This is the ultimate irony. She feels as if she’s better than everyone else because of her family, but that sense of superiority took away whatever happiness she might have found, compelled her to murder a man, and live with his corpse for the rest of her life. She could not marry him, but she had to have him close, so she killed him. She died poor, a murderer, and unhappy, because she thought she was better than everyone else. This is ironic, and the use of irony helped develop her character.
Irony is a very common part of Modernist literature. Irony is used to deliver readers a twisted and alternate version of the literature which can greatly elevate all aspects of the story. One part in particular that is greatly affected by irony is the characters. In Modernist writing, characters are developed in a way which makes readers dislike them because they contradict themselves make themselves look foolish. Irony is used to develop the idea that they are actually opposing what they actually believe they are. A great example of this can be seen in the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The main character of this story, Emily Grierson, thinks that she lives a life which is actually much different than the real life she is living, which makes her life quite ironic.
ReplyDelete“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner focuses around an old women named Emily Grierson. The story takes place in the late 1800’s in Jefferson which is a town in the South. Emily comes from a well-to-do family which meant that she was raised in a somewhat privileged household. Her family was respected, which can be proven by the fact that at some point her family was excused from paying taxes by some General Sartoris. This tax exemption is the first great example of the irony surrounding Emily. Emily believes that she is essentially too good to pay taxes and is above almost everything that the normal people in society are part of. In reality, however, she couldn’t even afford taxes if she was subject to them. She has this large sense of entitlement but realistically she is not really better-off than any other civilian in Jefferson.
Another great example irony in this short story is the state of her house. At the beginning of the story it is described as being “a big squarish framed house that had once been white, decorate with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies” (Line 4-5). However, overtime it has deteriorated, which Faulkner shows by mentioning the great deal dust and decay. What doesn’t decay at all is her idea that she is above everyone and is still wealthy. She lives in a now crumby house, but still teaches china painting classes and other activities which would generally be reserved for high-class people. This example, as well as other examples seen throughout this short story, show how irony is used in Modernist literature to develop characters.
The character Miss Emily is descirbed with irony in the short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. Miss Emily's house is very ironic because she lives in a well-known and well-respected part of town in a house that many people would expect to be quite upscale. "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street." The irony of this quote is that Miss Emily's house was actually falling apart and did not seem upscale once you really looked at it. Many people complained that her house had started to smell. "...an eyesore among eyesores." Miss Emily believed that since her father had donated money to the town and she didn't have to pay the taxes, she was a high priority. She held herself to very high standards and even though she wasn't that great. Miss Emily is also ironic because she thinks she is above most of the people in the town because of what her father did, when really she is just like them. When Miss Emily passes away, she is poor and has murdered somebody, and this is ironic because she always thought she was so fantastic! William Faulkner uses irony to help develop the character of Miss Emily because it shows to the readers how she really believed her status was much higher than those that were really on her leve.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" by Flannery O'Conner there was dramatic irony. When the Misfit had killed the family it for no reason ot was a sure sign that he had no heart. When the grandmaother had her moment of grace it was apparent that he did not care. This wa just in the way that he said "... Then its nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing something other than meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness...". This statement made it pretty apparent what he thought. Before he killed grandmother it was forseen just by what he said. That is how dramatic irony was seen in this particular short story
ReplyDeleteIn Faulkner’s modernist short story “A Rose for Emily,” irony plays a large role in developing the main character. Situational irony is evident when people complain about the smell, thinking it is a dead animal or because she doesn’t take care of the place when it is actually the smell of a dead body, “they were not surprised when the smell developed.” After Miss Emily’s funeral, the townspeople immediately go through her house where they discover a dusty room strangely decorated as a bridal room. Homer's remains lay on the bed; next to him is an impression of a head on a pillow where the townspeople found a “long strand of iron-gray hair.” The disturbing ending implied that Miss Emily had killed Homer and slept with his dead body every night. Roses, which typically symbolize an everlasting love, are appropriate for Emily considering how she has loved her fiancé, Homer Barron. Here, Faulkner’s vision of everlasting love is first realized: marriage and death exist entwined. This irony transforms our depiction of a crazy person into a person that the readers have sympathy for. Emily is willing to go to any lengths to keep her world the way she wants it. She killed Homer so she could hang on to him, not giving him the chance to leave her. Emily is too stubborn to let Homer go, so she took the most drastic measures to keep him. This permits the reader to develop a sympathetic understanding of her before we are shocked and disgusted by her necrophilia.
ReplyDeleteIrony is a primary characteristic of modernism. Many modernist authors use irony to describe a specific character. An example of a modernist author using irony to describe one of his/her characters is in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. In this short story, O’Connor describes the grandma as an old fashioned person, and as someone who is hard to like. The irony surrounding the grandma is that she didn’t want to go to Florida on her sons’ families’ vacation, and her reasoning was that a criminal called the Misfit had escaped from jail and was reportedly heading toward Florida. The family ends up going to Tennessee, where the grandmother wanted to go to visit “some of her connections.” This doesn’t help the grandmother’s case, because she put her selfish wants in front of what the family had already planned.
ReplyDeleteThe true irony causing the disdain for this character comes later on in the story though. As they are driving to Tennessee, the grandmother wants to stop and see an old suitors house, but she doesn’t really know where it is so she tells her son to turn down a random dirt road where they get in a car accident, which is caused by the grandmother’s cat that she snuck into the car, creating more feelings of disdain for the grandmother character. Finally, someone comes to help them, but it ends up being the Misfit and his gang, completing the irony that the author uses to describe the grandmother character as selfish and simply foolish. The reason for this is because the reason the family went to Tennessee for their vacation was to avoid the Misfit, but they ran into him anyway, and it was all thanks to the foolish grandmother.
Irony is used quite often in Modernist literature. In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, the character Miss Emily is developed using irony. As she grew up her father taught her to think she was better than everyone else because her family was very high class and rich. This thought stayed with her for the rest of her life. She ended up falling in love with a man of lower social status. this was problematic because she didn't think it was acceptable for her to marry someone "lower" than herself, so she killed him. After she killed him Emily became very unhappy, aging quickly and never coming out of her house. Her sense of primacy is ultimately what led to her unhappiness, which is the irony of her character.
ReplyDeleteIrony is very commonly seen in modernist literature. It helps develop the story and give the reader a different style of the literature. Irony usually affects mostly the characters throughout a story. In Modernist writing it makes the character seem like a contradiction because it portrays the opposite of who they actually are. In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, the grandmother acts like she’s the most nice and humblest person but she also seems very selfish as the story develops. She talks so much about how back in her day everything was better and the people were filled with way more respect compared to her grandchildren’s generation.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story when the “grandmother said to the Misfit while you are one of my babies. You are of my own children.” The grandmother reached out and touched him is a good example of dramatic irony because when she looked into the misfits eyes, she saw in him the truth about herself. The grandmother called out that he was her baby because she saw the truth reflected in the Misfit because she was not a good person; therefore, she saw herself in his wickedness. When the Misfit stated that the grandmother, “she would have been a good woman,” According to the Misfit, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” He may have implied that if she had been more truthful about herself rather than outward appearance. She was about how she looked rather than who she was as a human being. She just wanted to benefit herself and have it all her way without being direct about. She was a totally different person throughout the story though; she portrayed herself as being nice and showed kindness to the Misfit; it was all a contradiction.
In the short story A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, irony is used liberally to describe Miss Grierson. There are many situations in which the author uses his descriptions of Emily to send clear sub- textual clues to the reader about significant characteristics that Emily Grierson possesses. For example the title: A Rose for Emily implies that Emily is a sweet, innocent and well loved character. However, upon reading the story, it becomes evident that these characteristics do not describe Miss Emily. Whatever traces of these qualities she once possessed have been scrubbed away by years of mysterious seclusion and insanity. The title is an example of dramatic irony, because it implies one thing, but the reader knows that these qualities are not cohesive with the descriptions of the old Emily. The townspeople pitied Emily. They saw her existence as an obligation to the rest of town; they felt as if they should keep an eye out for her, respect her from afar, and allow her to maintain a withdrawn lifestyle. This is ironic simply because Emily did not really view herself as this hag who needed to be protected and watched. She was a stern, commanding woman who pretty much did as she pleased. When the authorities came to collect her taxes, she stood firm, refusing to be convinced. The authorities finally accepted her unshakable conviction that she has no taxes in Jefferson and eventually just give up. The townspeople were shy about telling her that her property smells terrible. They just kind of averted their eyes and accepted that Miss. Emily was just exempt from norms established in their town. This image of Emily is ironic because it never really hindered her. She didn’t interact with people when she didn’t want to. She didn’t pay taxes. She got away with murder and necrophilia. She was out of anyone’s control. She was a recluse, but she was not a weakling. She got away with so many things that a woman of society would have never been able manage. These are two examples of how William Faulkner uses irony when describing Emily Grierson.
ReplyDeleteIn Ernest Hemingway's short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place he emphasizes that our lives are a whole bunch of nothing and that eventually everyone will be depressed and alone. Hemingway uses irony, as often seen in modernist literature, to characterize the older waiter who works at the cafe. The older waiter says the lord's prayer but replaces many key religious words with "nada" taking away any hints that suggest that there is a higher being guiding us in life. Hemingway also uses irony when talking about the lonely old man sitting in the cafe. "This old man is clean. he drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him". Usually when you think of a drunk you think of a disheveled incompetent person, this old man however, is quite the opposite. he is well put together drunk. "I am one of those who like to stay late at the cafe... with all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night". People on earth are left alone to discover the meaning of their existence by themselves but the older waiter is offering the well-lighted cafe as a place of refuge for people to escape the darkness and loneliness of life and where people can just sit and not have to worry about life.
ReplyDeleteIrony is a component commonly found in modernist literature. In the southern gothic short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," by Flannery O'Conner, irony is used to develop the grandma. The irony surrounding the character is first seen at the beginning of the book, when she refuses to go on a family road trip to Florida. Instead they visit Tennessee because of the grandma's selfish needs. In the beginning of the story, the grandma starts out as refusing to go to the trip, then she is the first one in the car. Towards the end of the story, irony continues to develop around the grandma, because she causes trouble for the family. After turning down a dirt road to see an old house, the family gets into an accident because because of the cat the grandma brings along. After the accident, the grandma and the family run into the misfit. This is ironic because after refusing to go on the trip in fear of running into the misfit, the family runs into them anyway because the grandma insisted on going to Tennessee.
ReplyDeleteIrony is a common feature of modernist literature. In Ernest Hemingway's short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, the author uses irony to develope the characters. In a cafe late at night, there are two waiters, one young and one old. The young waiter is anxious to get home, his dialogue shows him as selfish and only caring about himself. The older waiter does not mind staying late at the cafe to serve customers becuase he understands the importance of a "clean well-lighted place." The irony stems from the fact that the young waiter does not understand the importance of providing people with a "clean well-lighted place," when in fact he is anxious to get home to a "clean well-lighted place." This irony creates the image of a selfish and ignorant young man.
ReplyDeleteModernist literature is known to have a pessimistic tone relating to the various issues that developed during this time period. One characteristic or trait that Modernism focused on was the issue of alienation. According to The Ironic Vision in Modern Literature, "irony could be profitably used not only in sphere of satire and polemics but also in delineation of characters" (Glicksberg 3). This is true in the southern gothic short story, A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner. Irony is illustrated through many aspects of this work in order to describe and develop the protagonist, Miss Emily. Miss Emily alienated herself from her town after her father's passing. It was rare to see her and at times, the only sign of life about her house was from her servant, Tobe. Not only did Miss Emily isolate herself from the outside world because of her father's passing, but she also did it because of the new generation that inhibited the town. The new generation of town members constantly criticized the actions of Miss Emily. For example, the new generation opposed the relationship between Miss Emily and Homer Barron due to the fact that Miss Emily was of a higher status than Homer. To date a lower ranked northerner who was a day laborer while being a southern woman classified as "a real lady" was not satisfactory for the others in the town, thus, sending Miss Emily her cousins to aid their separation. The town already felt that Miss Emily believed she was superior them by sticking to her "old generation" roots which created even more animosity towards her. What the town didn't realize was that the were actually aiding the actions of Miss Emily they all wish hadn't happened once her funeral came around. Another place where irony resides in this short story is within the relationship between Miss Emily and Homer Barron. Homer, being a "non-marrying" type, shows that there is the possibility that he may leave Miss Emily's life. Miss Emily doesn't find this to her liking, so she purchases arsenic that in her view, is claimed to be "for rats". Faulkner's use of irony reflects Miss Emily as a tragic character. Miss Emily tried doing things she wasn't used to doing because of her father's strict enforcement prior to his death. But when she did these things, no one had her back but herself. According to Shmoop, "Miss Emily is continually handed thorns, not roses, and she herself produces many thorns in return". With the narrator being the towns people, we see what happened in their perspective. This most likely makes the reader feel bad for Miss Emily just as the towns people do. According to Introducción a la narrativa breve de William Faulkner, by Cristina Blanco Outón, Faulkner said himself that A Rose for Emily "was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute, just as if you were to make a gesture, a salute to anyone; to a woman you would hand a rose" (Outón 63).
ReplyDeleteIrony is utilized in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” to develop the grandmother’s character. The grandmother values the respect for elders, properness, and courteousness that she associates as traditional southern values. Her appreciation of “ladylike” qualities is illustrated in the sentence, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady,” (O’Connor 2). This illustrates the grandmother’s tendencies toward obsessively needing control of any given situation. The quote is also ironic, because at the end of the story she will very much be dead on a road. However, when this death comes, she isn’t valued as a lady, as she had hoped. Instead, her murderer says “She would have been a good woman…if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” (11). This further develops the characterization of the grandmother by revealing that other characters found her overbearingness to be grating. Of course, the murderer’s reference to the “good woman” is ironic in contrast with the story’s title, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Here is a murderer, a person the grandmother would consider a prime example of how hard it is to find a “good man.” And this murderer is judging the grandmother, asserting that she herself is not a “good woman.” The fabric of the story is rich with irony, and in addition to providing thrilling plot twists, this irony develops the characters of the story.
ReplyDeleteIn "A Clean, Well Lighted PLace" by Ernest Hemingway, majority of the irony is from the old waiter and the cafe. For example, the waiter recites the Lord's Prayer, but uses the word "nada" as if the prayer has little signifance of anything. He demonstrates that even the most simplest of things are worth nothing. Another example wouold be from when he speaks about going home to a "clean, well-lighted place." It's so ironic because he speaks of how he lives in such a place, but yet he's not willing to maintain the same set of standards in the cafe.
ReplyDeleteThe cafe is also used in a sense of irony because cafes are usually calm, quiet and peaceful- very soothing to the customer and yet this specific cafe is anything but.
Throughout the sort story A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, the main character Ms. Emily is a pure example of irony for her overwhelmingly developed personality and different traits that come alongside that development. As the story further ventures into the life of Miss. Emily we as an audience discovers the turmoil in her life and her ultimate view of death and life. Soon the story revels a murder committed by Emily herself against a man she hard to the deepest part of her being, her husband. The author influences her character to murder her husband in a falsely sot after attempt to displace her hatred for her spouse. Though the irony of the situation was seen through Miss. Emily’s handling of her husbands death; as assumed she began to have sex with him even in death.
ReplyDeleteThis was unusually ironic for one reason alone, how could a women continue to have a sexual relationship with her dead husband whom which she killed. Putting the disturbing nature of having intercourse with a dead corpse aside, the circumstance Emily was in was even more interesting for her hatred towards a man she wanted to still love. In modern European societies a sexual relationship is ultimately related to a relationship full of compassion, lust, and love; thats why Miss. Emily in herself is found to be an ironic character. As an audience we gather she has a prominent and strong sexual relationship with her deceased spouse constantly sometime after his death, and continues to take part in that activity once his body begins to decay and break down as a normal dead organism would. In common terms Miss. Emily was a necrophiliac who desired her dead husbands body; but that desire fueled her sickly mind and added layers to her character that had yet been exposed.
Situational irony, is the type of irony used by William Faulkner to developed the character of Miss. Emily and her relationship with her dead spouse. The entire situation of her having sex with a dead man was ironic in itself causing the situational irony to be identified. Miss. Emily hated her husband to the core and enough to be able to murder him in cold blood, though she continued to love him enough a connect to him on a personal level to continue having sex with him. Emily was no meant to be a one dimensional character in the short story, and her lovely hatred for her deceased husband also reflected that; what if her having sex with her dead husband was the last “Fuck You” to the man and her concluding act on his livelihood to show whom really held the power in their corrupt relationship.
In modernist literature, irony is often used to develop stories and characters. In William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, the tale of Miss Emily is one full of irony, especially in the case of her necrophilia. Faulkner gave hints throughout the story that she had psychotic tendencies, but the ending revealed that she was living in a world of fantasy, and sleeping with a dead man. Emily denied the death that happened around her, of both her father and Homer. She wanted to hang on to those who loved her. Incidentally, she killed her husband so he would not have the chance to change his mind. Emily goes to all lengths to keep things the way that they are, and ends up changing it all in the process. Those around her did not even suspect her husband’s death. They thought the smell was one of dead animals, but was a human corpse and nobody suspected a thing because Emily was (at first) portrayed as an innocent girl. But, as time went on, she became less innocent in appearance and we are led to wonder how the townspeople could have let the death of Homer Barron go unnoticed. The irony of Miss Emily’s story shows readers that even when you love something, it is so difficult to let it go.
ReplyDeletemoderist writers use irony to develop characters. Flannery O'Connor uses irony in the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" to develop the grandmother as a character. She values traditional southern morals and ideas she was raised with and wishes her son and his children would have. Her family does not understand her obsession with her appearance and properness. “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady,” (O’Connor 2). This is ironic because by the end of the story she is dead on the side of the road and no one who was to see her would think she was a proper lady because of what she was wearing. Her personality is not one too many desire because of her obsession with "ladylike" behavior and appearance. As she is about to die, her attitude changes and she begins to tell the murderer who just killed her whole family that he can be saved by God if he wants to change. After its done the murderer says “She would have been a good woman…if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” (11). When he says she could have been a “good woman” it is ironic because the title is "A Good Man is Hard to Find" but its the grandmother who could have been a better person.
ReplyDeleteDuring the modernist era in literature, writers started to write more about pessimism and ironic events. In "A Rose For Emily" by William Faukner, irony was used to describe Miss Grierson. In the short story Miss Grierson represents the old south and how it was sometimes twisted. When Emily's father passed away she inherited his house and told she would not have to pay anything for it, but as decades passed and new people were in charge of the town, she was ordered to pay. This shows the change from the old south to modern time. On top of Emily's refusal to pay, there was irony in her necrophilia with the man that she loved but killed. This irony shows that as much as Emily loved a man, she killed him so that he would be with her "forever."
ReplyDeleteIn "A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, the main character Miss Emily is an example of irony within modernist literature. She is described as a lonely old woman who lives by herself in a house given to her by her father. The first hint that she isn't completely sane is when she walks into a store asking for any kind of poison, "For rats," she says. At the end of the story, it's revealed when townspeople enter the bedroom that she has killed the man she loved, Homer Barron, with arsenic and that the repugnant stench coming from her house was that of a rotting body. Miss Emily was so afraid of having him leave her that she resorted to killing him so that they could be together forever and what makes this even more extreme is the insinuation of necrophilia, perhaps an example of how crazy she might have actually become over time.
ReplyDeleteIrony is a literary device utilized by William Faulkner in the story "A Rose for Emily" in a variety of fashions for a numerous parts of the story. The most obvious way he uses the device is the way Faulkner depicts Miss Emily, the protagonist of the story. She is described as a wealthy but lonely woman who undeniably has something wrong with her mentally. This can be ironic because wealthy women are known for their privileged upbringing and it is not common to hear of wealthy well-educated women suffering from any king of brain malfunction. This becomes extremely incongruent to the typical wealthy woman as she is described in participating in an act of necrophilia, something a wealthy woman with the best education would never do. Another ironic feature of the life of this woman is her alienation from the rest of the inhabitants of her town. Wealthy women are known for being socialites, always attending fancy balls and participating in activities with other wealthy socialites. However, the case of Miss Emily seems to be dissimilar because she has chosen to alienate herself from anyone she may have the smallest commonality. This may be caused by her disdain for change. She demonstrates this as she refusal to acquiesce to the new laws forcing her to pay taxes she did not have to pay previously.
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ReplyDeleteIrony is commonly used in modernist literature and is a major characteristic of modern writing. Like other modern writers, Ernest Hemingway uses Irony to assist the development of their characters. In Hemingway’s short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, the author uses irony to develop the three characters the reader is introduced to. The three characters include an older waiter, a young waiter and an old man sitting in the shadow. In a cafe late at night, there are two waiters; the young waiter is restless to get home. Hemingway’s diction develops the young waiter to come off as selfish and in a rush against time. As for the older waiter, he does not mind staying late at the cafe to serve customers because he shows an appreciation for a "clean well-lighted place." Hemmingway makes irony from the young waiter not understanding the importance of providing people with a "clean well-lighted place," when in fact he is concerned about getting home which would be his very own "clean well-lighted place." There is also irony in the old waiter’s recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. The irony of this is that the prayer is meant to provide a since of comfort like a “clean well-lighted place” but replacing words in the prayer with "nada" which suggests that it offers no comfort.
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