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Literature Analysis of Humor and Irony of “The Drunkard” 9/09/13 In “The Drunkard” Frank O’Connor reflects back on an incident that occurred when he was a kid in Cork, Ireland, although he takes the name of Larry Delaney. Larry Delaney is the son of Mice Delaney, who is expected to be the drunkard in the story. Humor and irony are very important to the theme of the passage which is: People that try to prevent something often become curious as to what they are trying to prevent, and try it themselves.
The title “The Drunkard” suggests that an adult is the drunk due to the legal drinking age. It helps create the situational irony that occurs in the bar during the climax of the story. Larry is supposed to act as a brake to his father’s drinking habit, and in a way succeeds, although not in the way one would infer. He drinks all of his dad’s beer in the bar, because he became curious as to why his father would drink. The son’s drinking quickly becomes the story’s primary source of humor and irony, hen it is he, not his father, that is drunk and yelling profanity that is stereotypical of an adult drunk.
To further the irony his mother thanks him for stopping his father’s drinking unknowingly, by his embarrassment of his father in the street. The short story is poking fun at human curiosity, and how people often try to prevent something, only to become part of it. At the end of the story it is revealed that Mice hadn’t even had a sip of alcohol, revealing that Larry succeeded in his mother’s mission, even though he himself drank.