Please comment upon the use of situational irony in "Harrison Bergeron."

Let us remind ourselves
that situationalis based on plot, and is the term used to describe a sudden twist in the course
of events that makes the precise opposite of what we expect to happen occur. A classic example
would be a rags-to-riches story in which a poor person suddenly becomes rich at the
end.

If we examine this term in relation to this excellent tale, we can see
that the situational irony relates to 's sudden appearance on the TV show and how it is dealt
with. The way in which Harrison bursts onto the show, crowns himself Emperor and takes one of
the dancers for his Empress, then proceeds to dance in a way that defies gravity itself, leads
us to believe that he will mount a successful revolution against handicapping and end this era
of forced equality and no competition. It is therefore a great shock and surprise to us when
this ending does not occur, and the dance is rudely interrupted:

It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio
with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were
dead before they hit the floor.

The grim situational
irony of this story therefore relates to the way in which Harrison Bergeron's revolution is
cruelly crushed with his violent and sudden murder, and the change that the story looked to
offer us never comes to pass.