Where is the irony in "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
The ongoing irony in "How Much Land Does a Man Need" has to do with the fact that Pakom cannot stop trying to enlarge the amount of land he is going to acquire for his one thousand roubles. He keeps walking farther and farther, trying to enclose more and more of the rich land. He inevitably ends up getting into time trouble because the sun is setting and he is a long distance from the point he has to reach in order to make a complete circuit of the land he wishes to acquire. He has already tired himself out with his long day's walking, and then he is forced to walk faster and faster and finally to start running in order to reach his goal. The final irony is contained in the very last words of Tolstoy's story:
His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long...
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enough for Pahom to lie in, and buried him in it. Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.
That answers the question asked in the title, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
What is the irony in "How Much Land Does a Man Require?" by Leo Tolstoy?
There are several ironies in Tolstoy's short story "How Much Land Does a Man Require?" (traditionally translated "Need"). The first is dramatic irony, a contrast between what Pahom thinks is happening and what we (readers) know to be true. Pahom and his wife are adamant in a discussion early in the story that living a more rural, simple life is much better than a life in the city because they are not tempted to participate in the Devil's activities so rife in the cities. Pahom's only complaint is that he could do so much more if he had more land, and he and his family go through several moves in an attempt to attain that goal. He boasts that he wouldn't be afraid of the Devil himself if he just had enough land. The Devil overheard him and tricked Pahom, playing on his greed, into actions which lead to his death. We recognize the Devil at work, but Pahom does not.
Another example of irony in this story is situational irony--a contrast between what we and the characters expectto happen and what does happen in this story. The deal which Pahom made is to pay 1,000 rubles for whatever land he can walk around in one day; after he was tricked by the Devil and beaten by his own greed, Pahom did end up with all the land he needed--literally. Six feet of land on which to be buried.
Ironies generally point readers to the themes of a work; in this case, that greed is no way to gain happiness, that taunting the Devil is not going to turn out well, and that all we really needis enough to meet our basic neccessities--in this case, land enough on which to be buried.
I've included an excellent e-notes summary below, as well, which I think you'll find helpful.
Is the last line of the story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" ironic?
Yes, I think the line in question is very ironic, especially when you keep in mind that it answers the question that is asked in the story's title. From that perspective, this closing line tends to hover across the entire length of the story, informing everything that came before it.
Ultimately, at its heart, "How Much Land Does a Man Need" is a story about greed, with its main character, Pahom, driven by a constant need to increase his own land holdings. Of course, it is this same greed that ultimately kills him. Tolstoy thus provides an answer to the question which his story's title poses: a man only needs land enough to serve as a grave.
This is a cutting reversal to the arc of the story thus far, where Pahom has been driven by land greed, continually looking to seize any and all opportunities. From Pahom's perspective, there is no real answer to this question, because there is no minimum amount of land that would suffice for him—he's always grasping for more than what he currently has. Tolstoy, on the other hand, has a very different answer to this question, one which would invalidate everything Pahom has spent his life trying to achieve.