Arrowsmith Irony

Arrowsmith Irony

Irony that Ira who was a committed Christian secretly smuggled girls into his room

It is a situational irony that Ira who is described as a lively Christian who was always preaching to the other students at the college to change their immoral ways smuggled girls into his dorm room at night. The readers would expect that he practices what he teaches to the other students. It is also ironical that the students of the Di-gamma Pi fraternity elected him on the grounds of his ability to bring girls into his room discreetly without alerting the dean. The readers expect that he should have been elected on the grounds of his leadership skills and good character.

Irony that Dr. Vickerson’s living rooms were unsanitary

It is ironical that the doctor’s rooms and offices were dirty and untidy as described by the narrator as, ‘... On one side of it was the foul waiting-room, on the other, the Doc's bedroom. He was an aged widower; for what he called "female fixings" he cared nothing; and the bedroom with its tottering bureau and its cot of frowsy blankets was cleaned only by Martin, in not very frequent attacks of sanitation.” The readers would expect that the doctor’s rooms would be sanitary and tidy for he should know the dangers of dirt as he received his patients and preached to them about proper sanitation to avoid diseases.

It is a situational irony that Martin Arrowsmith chose Dr. Vickerson to be his mentor instead of Dr. Needham

Martin regarded the doc as an old man who was always drunk. Regardless of this, he chose him to be his mentor when there was a good doctor who obeyed all the rules and made five grand a year at the end of the street. The readers would have expected that Martin choose the other doctor for he could have learnt much from him rather than the doc Vickerson who had questionable character that even Martin observed.

Irony that the doctor Gottlieb claimed that he taught his students to kill patients

Doctor Gottlieb claimed that he taught his students of medicine how to kill patients. This statement was both a verbal and situational irony for the doctor meant that that group of students did not pay attention to his teaching methods and as a result, they ended up killing their patients cause of lack of sufficient knowledge in medicine.

The Dr. Brumfit claiming that he was liberal yet he held conservative views

It is a situational irony that Doc Brumfit claimed that he was liberal minded yet he questioned the methods that Doc Gottlieb used that were both liberal and open-minded. Dr. Brumfit held the view that doctors should accept other doctor’s opinions without testing them and he shammed Gotttlieb for going to the lab and proving what was true and what was not on the basis of facts. The narrator goes on to say that, ‘He was permitted, without restriction, to speak of himself as immoral, agnostic and socialistic, so long as it was universally known that he remained pure, Presbyterian, and Republican. Dr. Brumfit was in form, tonight. He asserted that whenever a man showed genius, it could be proved that he had Jewish blood.’

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