Improper offer
The young girl continued pawning different things, and the pawnshop’s owner – the narrator of the story found out what was the reason – the girl continued advertising in the magazine to get any possible job, but fortune did not turn to her. One morning the protagonist took up the “Voice” of the day and showed her an advertisement. “A young person, without friends and relations, seeks a situation as a governess to young children, preferably in the family of a middle-aged widower. Might be a comfort in the home.” He added: “Look here how this lady has advertised this morning, and by the evening she will certainly have found a situation. That’s the way to advertise.” His improper offer to “sell herself” shows how really rude he is, it seems that somewhere deep he gets satisfaction of other people’s sufferings, this is some kind of revenge upon the society he has made up and continues behaving this way.
5 minutes late
In the very end, when the suicide has been committed, the narrator continues repeating about five minutes he has been late: “Five minutes, only five minutes too late! Had I come five minutes earlier, the moment would have passed away like a cloud, and it would never have entered her head again.” But he is wrong, since he has been late more that five minutes, and it has been a period of years that made his young wife commit a deathly sin. The ironic situation requires traits of sarcasm.
