O’ Henry

Q: Justify the title “Hearts and Hands” Or Discuss the use of irony used in the short story “Hearts and Hands”

Answer: O’ Henry is one of the popular short story writer of America. His 300 short stories bring him record achievement as short story writer. His contribution to the 20^th century American literature is unique. He is widely known for his capacity to create ironic situation within short space. The story “Hearts and Hands” deals with how two-handcuffed man befooled a beautiful young woman to avoid some embarrassing situation. The story begins in a simple way, but the entire situation turns ironic as Miss Fairchild is deliberately misguided and duped. Irony is at center of the story. In a compartment of a train Miss Fairchild met Easton accidentally. She recognized Mr. Easton as her old friend from among the passengers. She was very glad to see him first, but she immediately become shocked at the discovery that her friend was in handcuff. Easton was also utterly embarrassed. Both of them at that time found themselves in an awkward position. Just at that time Easton’s companion comes to his rescue. He indirectly introduced Easton as the marshal. He then told that he was taken to Leavenworth prison. Miss Fairchild then felt relieved and happy to think that her old friend was leading an adventurous and prosperous life. She than started talking in a free and frank manner and at one stage she become emotional and amorous. The situation is ironic here and the pretty woman couldn’t realize what went wrong with Easton. Rather she became happy to know his marshal ship and felt romantic. It is ironical that the woman could not understand the truth behind his going to prison. She became close to him and told about herself. In this way the situation was taking another turn. So they realized that before the cat came out the bag. They should take leave of the compartment and go out of sight of the young woman. Otherwise they would be exposed and their identity would come to light. The lady wished that Easton would come back soon from Leavenworth and meet her again. But he was then taken to the smoker by his companion (the real marshal) to get rid of the odd situation. Their hearts were going to very close position. But then come the climax. The right hand of the officer should be handcuffed with the left hand of the marshal or the officer. But it was contrary in the case of Easton and his companion marshal. The right hand of the Easton was handcuffed with the left hand of the marshal. A passenger could understand that and the story thus took a surprise turn. This is the irony what appears is not true, rather the contrary is true.

The story thus unexpectedly comes to an end. We come to the identity of the Easton from the passenger. We see the irony in the story when the two hearts were coming close to each other; the hands prevented the man and the woman from becoming more intimate. Here romantic hopes turns into frustration and funny situation takes pathetic turn.  Thus the title of the story is appropriate.