IRONY IN HOUSE
Irony plays a vital role in literature, specifically short stories. It captures the reader’s attention by highlighting the actions and characterization, lets one be completely absorbed into the stories by creating twists, tension, and humour. Consequently, this is a literary device that is used widely by writers in their work, including Jane Rule with one of her short stories, “House.” The short story contains three types of irony – situational, verbal, and dramatic, but verbal irony and situational irony are the jocular elements.
Jane Rule started the story with a situational irony. “Other women want to buy houses. Other women want their kids to have a yard to play in. They like to reupholster their own furniture. They don’t have to be dragged, screaming and kicking, into middle class and middle age. They take pleasure in it.”(21) The readers recognize immediately that the roles in the family were switched. It’s ironic how Harry, the husband, wanted what “other women want” but his wife, Anna, did not. She had always wanted unconventional things: a horse, a plane, an island, watching fights, going to Europe. Contrastingly, Harry had always wondered “a little more than Anna how other people live. The adventurousness usually found in a husband was in Anna, and the thoughtfulness usually found in a wife was in Harry. The humour strikes the readers at the moment they started reading, which forms a sense of excitement inside their heads. Another situational irony appears when the husband regretted buying the house, but he was the person who had come up with the idea and convinced others in the first place. He should have relieved after buying the house successfully, but he changed his mind. Nobody would have expected that he would rather live in the old, smaller house after having bought a new, bigger one. Nobody would have supposed that Harry thinks “what a terrible mistake it all was.” Moving to the end of the story, the readers account the third situational irony: breaking the house. It takes the readers by surprise how Anna decided to fix the problem: breaking the house with a wrecking bar. This unrealistic scene causes the readers to burst into laughter. Even if a house is totally disappointing, no one will waste their investment and risk using the breaking bar to “crash through the wall.”(30). The way Jane Rule used situational irony, twisted the plot establishes the thrill which effectively holds the curiosity of the readers.
In addition, verbal irony is also a crucial element which accounts for the humour in “House.” While Anna and Harry were arguing, she told him “I’m depriving the kids. Now they play in two hundred acres of public park, thirty miles of beach, and spend their weekends cooped up in a boat when instead they could have a thirty-foot wide backyard and a wading pool.”(22) Although she said that she was “depriving the kids,” the public yard, the beach, the boat sound much more amusing than the backyard and a wading pool. By using sarcasm, the writer revealed how bored Anna was and why she thought “an island’s just right.” Next, Joey interrupted, set up a humorous mood in the middle of the nerve-racking argument. After his father told him not to call him by his name, “‘Who is this guy, mom?’ Joey asked, jerking his head toward his father. ‘I thought his name was Harry?’” (22) Following his making fun of Harry, Anna replied, “Oh, he’s some sort of real estate agent.”(22) This dialogue is entertaining to witness as Anna and Joey were on the same side, leaving Harry reasoning by himself. Thus, when his father asked, “Where would you go to school?”(22), Joey suggested without hesitation: “With the fish?”(22) These replies Joey gave out thoroughly shape his personality: a witty, cunning boy. By inserting this dialogue, the flow of the story naturally shifts from a stressful situation to a lighthearted one, triggering the readers’ laughter.
Jane Rule skillfully combined different types of irony which gives rise to the comicality in “House”. The hilarity coming from the irony intrigues the reader’s enthusiasm for the following actions. In spite of containing ironic, unexpected circumstances, the plot of the story is reasonable and understandable to the readers. Together, these factors turn into such a pleasant short story to read and enjoy.