Theme Of Verbal Irony In The Ransom Of Red Chief

Register to read the introduction… O. Henry starts the story with two scheming pals, Bill and Sam, who have an idea for kidnapping a wealthy man’s son in a town named Summit. They soon acquire Johnny Dorset, son of Ebenezer Dorset, (the wealthy man) and run off with him to a cave. Johnny, also called “Red Chief”, turns out to be more trouble than he’s worth, literally! The two friends expect a ransom of $2,000, but “Red Chief” causes so much chaos and havoc that the conmen are willing to give up the ransom just to get rid of him. Red Chief’s attempts to scalp, burn, and torture the two swindlers cause them to give up. He is especially cruel to Bill, which results in Bill pleading with Sam to get rid of this depraved child. To hisrelief, Red Chiefs father is willing to take his disturbed son back, but with a counter offer of $250! Finally agreeing that Red Chief is just too much to handle they pay Ebenezer his money and never go near summit again. The verbal irony used in “The Ransom of Red Chief” puts much humor into the story. There are many accounts of verbal irony in “Ransom of Red Chief”. In my opinion the funniest event of verbal irony in the story, is the name of the …show more content…
One of the many ironic situations the characters find themselves in is the counter offer proposed by Ebenezer Dorset. They are continually persecuted by this wicked child, throughout the whole story, but end up paying the man, that they expected to obtain money from! Another humorous account of situational irony is when Bill and Sam finally drop off Red Chief. Ebenezer holds Red Chief while Bill and Sam run for there lives. Sam is lean, and the fastest, because Bill is overweight and out of shape, but Bill runs like he’s never run before and is almost a mile ahead of Sam by the time he stopped. Read “Ransom of Red Chief” for yourself, and remember to expect the