Irony: How I Met My Husband

" So I said yes, and I went out with him for two years and he asked me to marry him, and we were engaged a year more while I got my things together, and then we did marry. He always tells the children the story of how I went after him by sitting by the mailbox every day, and naturally I laugh and let him, because I like for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy."

This story provides a good example of both situational and dramatic irony. The situational irony lies in the fact that the reader does not expect the mailman to be Edie's husband at all. Throughout most of the story, the narrator speaks about Chris Watters a war hero and commendable man. The way that she refers to him with such an affectionate description and tone makes the reader believe that they will end up together. That however, would make it like every other love story. She would marry her prince charming, her longtime love and they would ride off into the sunset on a white unicorn. However, this is not the average love story. This is a realistic love story, and though it is unexpected, she does not end up with Chris, but the mailman who she had always waited on to deliver his letters. This is when the dramatic irony takes place. The mailman developed the idea that she had been waiting on himself because she liked him, and rather than deny this thought, Edie gave up on her love for Chris and settled for the Carmichael. She never told him her true feelings. It may not have been the romantic fairytale that most love stories present, but it was more realistic and empathetic.