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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Chapter 1 (The Magnet Attracting: A Waif Amid Forces)
Explanation and Analysis—Descend and Return:
At the start of the novel, the narrator introduces Carrie’s naive worldview by employing verbal irony and foreshadowing. They hint at the vast changes and travels awaiting her:
To be sure there was always the next station, where one might descend and return. There was the great city, bound more closely by these very trains which came up daily. Columbia City was not so very far away, even once she was in Chicago. What, pray, is a few hours—a few hundred miles?
Related Themes:
Chapter 5 (A Glittering Night Flower: The Use of a Name)
Explanation and Analysis—Who Sees Spirits:
When Hurstwood and Drouet see a prominent spiritualist entering the bar they’re drinking at, they engage in a wry back-and-forth full of verbal irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"See that fellow coming in there?" said Hurstwood, glancing at a gentleman just entering, arrayed in a high hat and Prince Albert coat, his fat cheeks puffed and red as with good eating. [...]
“Who is he?”
“That’s Jules Wallace, the spiritualist.”
Drouet followed him with his eyes, much interested.
“Doesn’t look much like a man who sees spirits, does he?” said Drouet.
“Oh, I don’t know,” returned Hurstwood. “He’s got the money, all right,” and a little twinkle passed over his eyes.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6 (The Machine and the Maiden: A Knight of To-day)
Explanation and Analysis—Umbrella Panic:
Carrie's personal aspirations to better herself lead her to spend part of her scanty funds on an umbrella. This situationally ironic choice, influenced by vanity, results in a rift with her financially conscious sister, Minnie. It also foreshadows Carrie’s later troubles:
Unlock with LitCharts A+On the first morning it rained [Carrie] found that she had no umbrella. Minnie loaned her one of hers, which was worn and faded. There was the kind of vanity in Carrie that troubled at this. She went to one of the great department stores and bought herself one, using a dollar and a quarter of her small store to pay for it.
"What did you do that for, Carrie?" asked Minnie, when she saw it.
"Oh, I need one," said Carrie.
"You foolish girl."
Carrie resented this, though she did not reply. She was not going to be a common shop-girl, she thought; they need not think it, either.
Related Themes:
