death by scrabble
“Death by Scrabble,” a short story by Charlie Fish, displays a particularly intricate design of irony in a variety of ways. Beginning with the bold statement “It’s a hot day and I hate my wife.” The irony extends from the opening sentence into the subsequent three pages of enclosed cynicism. The enunciation from the opening shows symbolism and foreshadowing for the future events that will take place as a result of each word spelt out upon the scrabble board. The narrator, the husband, blatantly supports his internal emotions with external actions. Spelling words such as “cheating” and “explodes” which shows how he’s feeling about his wife’s existence. The narrator uses repetition of his hatred “I hate my wife,” “I hate her,” “I really, really hate her,” to show the reader how his feelings are emerging inside of him to an extensive revulsion. The husband does not explicitly communicate his feelings to his wife by expressing to her how much he dislikes her, yet he hides it within his terms while playing scrabble. The narrator states how his opportunities to live his life would be increased if his wife was dead; if in some way she was excommunicated from his company. “I hate her. If she wasn’t around, I’d be doing something interesting right now.” This shows that his wife is not only a blockage in his life, but also keeps him from doing things behind her back. With her physical presence he cannot continue his affair; he cannot spread his wings beyond her existence, and cannot direct his individual life. As the game of scrabble builds up, tension begins to rise among the married couple. The different words used throughout the scrabble board describe emotion and a feeling among the marriage, which by definition is not going well. Situational irony comes into the short story when the husband is describing how he wants his wife to die, but instead he ends up choking on a scrabble letter and in turn, killing himself. The situational irony is an example of how