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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
Section 6
Explanation and Analysis—Judy’s Marriage:
After mistreating and being unfaithful to her romantic partners for years, Judy ends up in a marriage with an unkind and unfaithful man—an example of situational irony. Dexter’s friend Devlin reveals this ironic twist to Dexter in the final section of the story:
“Well, that’s—I told you all there is to it. He treats her like the devil. Oh, they’re not going to get divorced or anything. When he’s particularly outrageous she forgives him. In fact, I’m inclined to think she loves him. She was a pretty girl when she first came to Detroit.”
As Devlin notes, Judy married a man who “treats her like the devil” and yet who “she loves” just the same. In many ways, this description also captures how Dexter related to Judy over the course of their on-again-off-again relationship. Judy forgiving her husband even “when he’s particularly outrageous” overtly mirrors the way that Dexter would forgive Judy every time she cheated on him, lied to him, and broke up with him. In this way, Judy's fate is ironic because she is the one being mistreated rather than the one doing the mistreating.
The critical difference between Judy’s unhealthy relationship with her husband and Dexter’s unhealthy relationship with Judy is that Dexter was eventually able to leave the relationship and focus on his business career instead. Because Judy is a woman in a society where men have more freedom and opportunities than women, her only options are to stay with her abusive and unfaithful husband or try to leave and become a single mother with no clear source of income. In this way, the situational irony of her marital fate is also quite tragic.
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