Question

Excerpt from Babbitt Sinclair Lewis In Floral Heights and the other prosperous sections of Zenith, especially in the “young married set,” there were many women who had nothing to do. Though they had few servants, yet with gas stoves, electric ranges and dish-washers and vacuum cleaners, and tiled kitchen walls, their houses were so convenient that they had little housework, and much of their food came from bakeries and delicatessens. They had but two, one, or no children; and despite the myth that the Great War had made work respectable, their husbands objected to their “wasting time and getting a lot of crank ideas” in unpaid social work, and still more to their causing a rumor, by earning money, that they were not adequately supported. They worked perhaps two hours a day, and the rest of the time they ate chocolates, went to the motion-pictures, went window-shopping, went in gossiping twos and threes to card-parties, read magazines, thought timorously of the lovers who never appeared, and accumulated a splendid restlessness which they got rid of by nagging their husbands. The husbands nagged back. Which best expresses the irony present in this passage? A) It is ironic that the wives nag their husbands. B) It is ironic that the men work hard after the War ended. C) It is ironic that the young married women have so much, and yet feel quiet unhappy. D) It is ironic that the women went to the motion-pictures, did window-shopping, liked gossiping.

Answer 1

C) It is ironic that the young married women have so much, and yet feel quiet unhappy.

Irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. The entire passage describes how easy life is for the young married women in Floral Heights and other prosperous areas of Zenith. One would expect the women to be happy that they want for nothing and only have to work for two hours a day. They can spend their days in leisure, enjoying the company of their friends. However, at the end it is revealed that they are actually unhappy. This is the opposite of what is expected and therefore, ironic.