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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 20: So Help You God!
Explanation and Analysis—Two-Faced Family:
In Chapter 20, during the trial for Anna's murder, attorneys question Ernest and Bryan Burkhart. The trial uncovers sickening dramatic irony and situational irony that have been at play at least since Anna's murder:
The shocked attorney asked [Bryan], “You knew Anna Brown’s dead body was out there, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Morrison had been among the onlookers. Ernest had been there, too, comforting Mollie, even though he had known that Anna’s two killers were standing only a few feet away from them. Similarly, Ernest had known from the moment Rita and Bill Smith’s house exploded who was responsible; he had known the truth when, later that evening, he had crept into bed with Mollie, and he had known the whole time she had been desperately searching for the killers.
Bryan's testimony forces Mollie and others in the courtroom to think back to the day when Anna's body was discovered. Her grief-stricken family and friends stood together around the crime scene, taking solace in one another—or so they thought. Even then, some among them were feigning their shock. They either knew what had happened to Anna or had carried out the murder themselves. Even when Anna went missing, Mollie confided her fears for her sister in Ernest, Bryan, and others who were responsible for her death. The same thing happened over and over again as the white men Mollie once considered family picked off her loved ones.
There is situational irony in the fact that Ernest, Bryan, Morrison, and other murderers stood around mourning Anna and the other victims. If they had not conspired to commit murder, there would have been no one to mourn. Even crueler is the way they allowed Mollie to turn to them for comfort. Ernest's betrayal is the most acute. It is difficult to imagine how he could stomach the dramatic irony as he lay in bed next to Mollie, knowing that he held the answers she was looking for and that he was one of the people who had wrought unimaginable trauma on her and her family.
Perhaps the greatest and most tragic irony is in the fact that, despite the convictions that came out of the trials for the Osage murders, justice could never really happen. Not only did there remain a slew of unsolved and never-investigated murders, but the convictions—when they did come—failed to resurrect Anna or any of the others. Instead of bringing Mollie comfort, the trials exposed her husband's betrayal and left her to contend with more pain than ever.
Related Themes:
