Desire Under the Elms: Situational Irony 1 key example

This concluding line of the play rings with irony, hammering home the themes of the play and the sense of hopelessness and a resigned mood. After watching the characters manipulate each other and even commit murder to own the farm, the Sheriff’s dismissive, casual comment is shockingly ironic to the audience—after all, the audience has seen just how much turmoil has come as a result of people wanting to own the farm. In turn, the Sheriff’s comment reveals the irony of the whole play: the characters have gone to such great lengths to own a farm that has only caused them pain throughout their lives. The Sheriff makes this comment "enviously," thus exhibiting the very emotion that motivated the characters to commit such extreme acts in the first place. Not only does this situational irony point out the hardships of farm life, but it illustrates that possessing something grand and beautiful—like the farm—does not actually make one’s life better, as we see with the downfall of these characters. The use of situational irony in the final line makes this clear to the reader.