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Imagery
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
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Bobby’s Parentage:
Near the end of the story, Mrs. Das reveals to Mr. Kapasi a secret she has never told anyone: her son Bobby was the product of an affair she had eight years earlier and is therefore not her husband’s biological child. The scene that follows—in which Mr. Kapasi interacts with the Das family as if nothing has happened—is an example of dramatic irony. This is because Mrs. Das, Mr. Kapasi, and readers all know the truth about Bobby, while Bobby himself, his father, and his siblings do not.
The dramatic irony comes across in the following passage, which opens with Mr. Kapasi saving Bobby from a group of violent Hanuman monkeys while the rest of the Das family looks on:
Mr. Kapasi gathered Bobby in his arms and brought him back to where his parents and siblings were standing. As he carried him he was tempted to whisper a secret into the boy’s ear. But Bobby was stunned, and shivering with fright, his legs bleeding slightly where the stick had broken the skin. When Mr. Kapasi delivered him to his parents, Mr. Das brushed some dirt off the boy’s T-shirt and put the visor on him the right way.
Mr. Kapasi’s desire to “whisper a secret into the boy’s ear”—presumably revealing to him the truth about his parentage—highlights the incongruity between what Bobby knows in this moment and what Mr. Kapasi (and readers) know. The way in which the narrator describes Mr. Das “brush[ing] some dirt off the boy’s T-shirt and put[ting] the visor on him the right way” also captures the dramatic irony here—not knowing that Bobby is the product of an affair his wife had, Mr. Das treats the boy with fatherly care and affection. This moment is meant to encourage readers to feel both empathy and pity for the man—while he is not responsible for his wife’s choices, he is responsible for refusing to see how unhappy their marriage has been for nearly a decade.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Mrs. Das’s Reveal:
Near the end of the story, Mrs. Das finds a way to be alone with Mr. Kapasi in the car, sitting close to him and revealing to him that her son Bobby is the result of an affair. While readers interpret this intimate reveal as a sign of Mrs. Das’s interest in having an affair with Mr. Kapasi as well, it becomes clear that she actually sought alone time with him in order to seek his advice on how to rid herself of guilt and pain (given his part-time job as an “interpreter of maladies”), making this an example of situational irony.
The following passage—which opens with Mrs. Das speaking—captures the way that Lahiri subtly builds the tension between Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi in this scene, encouraging readers to believe that Mrs. Das is interested in Mr. Kapasi sexually or romantically:
“[N]o one knows, of course. No one at all. I’ve kept it a secret for eight whole years.” She looked at Mr. Kapasi, tilting her chin as if to gain a fresh perspective. “But now I’ve told you.”
Mr. Kapasi nodded. He felt suddenly parched, and his forehead was warm and slightly numb from the balm. He considered asking Mrs. Das for a sip of water, then decided against it.
Here, Mrs. Das reveals that she has told “no one at all” this secret before “tilting her chin” in a way that is easy to read as flirtatious. That Mr. Kapasi “suddenly” feels “parched,” his forehead “warm and slightly numb,” also suggests that there is an erotic energy to their interaction and he is, as a result, nervous.
When Mrs. Das reveals, later in the scene, that she is only telling Mr. Kapasi this because of his professional experience as an “interpreter of maladies,” he tells her, “I don’t understand,” communicating that, like readers, he believed her to be seeking intimacy with him for another purpose. This is one of the many times in the story when Mr. Kapasi’s fantasies keep him from seeing reality for what it is. After this interaction, however, he lets go of his delusion about their potential love affair, resigning himself to living an unhappy life with his current wife.
Related Themes:
