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Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Chapter 13: The Man Who Was Marked for Death
Explanation and Analysis—Walsh's Con:
In Chapter 13, Hemingway recalls a time when a colleague, Ernest Walsh, convinced him that he was guaranteed to win an award if he submitted work to Walsh's new magazine. The chapter ends on a note of dramatic irony when Hemingway and James Joyce, years later, realize that Walsh used pathos to manipulate both of them:
One day, years later, I met Joyce who was walking along the Boulevard St.-Germain after having been to a matinee alone....
“Now about Walsh,” Joyce said.
“A such and such alive is a such and such dead,” I said.
“Did he promise you that award?” Joyce asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought so,” Joyce said.
“Did he promise it to you?”
“Yes,” Joyce said. After a time he asked, “Do you think he promised it to Pound?”
“I don’t know.”
“Best not to ask him,” Joyce said. We left it at that.
When Walsh was trying to get his magazine off the ground, Hemingway and Joyce both remember hearing rumors that there would be an award for the best entry. Hemingway was never going to bring it up with Walsh. However, Walsh took him to lunch and raised the subject himself, confirming the rumor and telling Hemingway that he could be sure the award would go to him. Walsh fell ill and left the project before the magazine went to the printer. Although Hemingway continued to work with Walsh's co-editor, he never saw any sign of an award.
In this scene, Joyce and Hemingway realize that all along, they had both been promised the award. Walsh now no longer appears like a disorganized and ill man who never managed to follow through on the promised award. On the contrary, he appears to be a talented manipulator. Not only did he allow his illness to guilt his colleagues into helping him, but he also played on their egos. By promising a special award to all the writers who could reasonably believe themselves the best writer around, he all but guaranteed himself a star-studded roster for his fledgling magazine. Joyce and Hemingway are more amused than insulted. By this time, they are both famous enough that it is probably flattering to each of them that they were played against each other in this way. Even so, they decide not to ask Ezra Pound if Walsh promised the award to him too. They will let Pound continue believing that he was once pre-selected as the writer of the best short story on offer.
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