Personal study
The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty
The short story “the Sniper” is written by Liam O’Flaherty. In this short story the author uses character, setting and the theme of war to increase the sense of irony at the climax.
This short story takes place in Dublin, Ireland during the time of the civil war between the two parties for and against the treaty to become countries under the British rule. There is a regional sniper on the rooftop waiting for his shot, then risks a smoke, he lights a match but the spark is noticed by the opposition sniper and is shot at. There is an armoured vehicle approaching the sniper but stops up the road and the sniper takes aim but can’t shoot as it will do not damage. An old woman appears from around the corner and is the informant and points in the direction of the sniper and the sniper takes its shot at the woman and flattens her so the turret starts firing. The sniper picks up his rifle and a shot rang out and killed the gunman of the turret. In surprise a shot was taken from the opposite side of the road and flattened the sniper. The armoured vehicle retired over the bridge. The sniper was bleeding from his arm and couldn’t feel it so he couldn’t use the rifle to kill his assailant. He devised a plan to trick the assailant to a false sense of security and he fell for it, he rose up and in plain view for a kill. The sniper only had a revolver to use for his escape so he took his shot with the revolver and killed him. His assailant drops dead to the pavement from the roof with a thud. He decides to go down and find out the identity of the assailant and at the ending he finally finds out that all his efforts were to no use because he found out that he had killed his very own brother.
Early on in the short story the author uses setting to increase the sense of irony of the climax such as
“Machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms”
The use of simile is...