Situational Irony In Josh Pachter's Invitation To A Murder

The short story, “Invitation to a Murder” written by Josh Pachter, was based on situational irony. The story took place in the Abbott home in New York City, New York, during modern times. Situational irony, when what is expected to happen does not happen, occurs repetitively in the story. The story begins with Branigan receiving an invitation from Eleanor Abbott, addressing the impending murder of her husband, Gregory Abbott. Once Branigan reached the Abbott house, he was directed to the room of Gregory Abbott by a butler; additionally when there, Branigan recognized eleven other men in the room. Branigan observed a table in the center of the room which had five items: a kitchen knife, a wire with wooden grips attached to the ends, an iron pipe, a gun, and an amber bottle with a skull and crossbones. Readers would think that Gregory Abbott would be murdered with one of these items; however not using one killed Mr. Abbott, which showed situational irony. The contrary of what was anticipated to happen arose. Another …show more content…
They all had devoted their careers to uphold the law; nevertheless the irony was that they became murderers, by killing Mrs. Abbott. Eleanor wanted to have impunity; therefore Mrs. Abbott threatened to destroy the men’s careers if they told the truth about Mrs. Abbott. The men helped end the life of Mr. Abbott since they were the reason that Mrs. Abbott did not give her husband the medicine; thus blame for them would be believed. To spare their reputations, they told Mrs. Abbott to drink the medicine, which was deadly to anyone except Mr. Abbott. The situational irony was that they murdered Mr. Abbott to maintain their own reputations. The bottle of medicine that was supposed to keep Gregory Abbott alive, ended up killing Mrs. Abbott; therefore Mrs. Abbott was technically dressed for her own funeral. This proved that the plot was built on situational