Brit Lit Essayparagraph

Katey Koon
Survey of British Literature
Mrs. Ganter
1 October 2016


Another literary element that stood out to me in both The Ballad of the Bachelor and "Beowulf" was situational irony. These stories involved many similar instances of this type of humor, specifically in the poem when the bachelor's coin lands on its side and therefore John Henry King was to "live and die a bachelor" (l.50). This occurrence represents irony in that, though he loved two women and both women loved him back, he ended up alone. Likewise, this type of situational irony is displayed in the story of "Beowulf" when he is given a mighty sword, or "Hrunting", from Unferth that was seemingly going to be used to kill Grendel's mother, yet her own giant sword is what ultimately kills her- which was quite unpredictable; as even Beowulf asserts after the fight that "Although Hrunting is hard-edged, I could never bring it to bear in battle" (ll. 1659-1660). These two situations show very similar cases of situational irony, though the poem may take a more humorous approach while "Beowulf" displays a more serious situational irony which involves the means by which a demonic monster could be killed.