The story “Doctor in the house” is a highly emotional and ironical one.

Generalizing, the author

reveals medical students’ experience of passing their final examinations and mentions their feelings
towards the examination. Yet the text, is divided in 3 parts namely 3 stages of examination. The first
part of the story introduces students’ attitude towards examination, continuing in the second with
describing a part of the written exam and the third part gives a summary of the oral exam and to finish
with, the author mentions the way students get the results.
Clearly, the story begins with the ridicule of the whole process of the examination, comparing it
to death. This can be recognized as the most important irony that persist in the text. Because nothing is
scarier for people than death. And for students, it is something that makes them hopeless, they know that
this is the last day of their life, they do not see anything more important than “death”. Further on the
author gives a detailed description of the examinators compared to the most terrible, tremendous
creatures which were like on purpose calm and steady. He goes on to enumerate different attitudes and
behaviors of the students during the exam hours. With an irony the author gives us the description of
students’ feelings and behavior. Some of them have “superiority in their faces”, others were trying to
complete the last brilliant sentence, “dissatisfied with the period allowed for them to express
themselves”.
We first meet the protagonist of the story mocking at and criticizing the known system of
checking examination papers used at Cambridge. The system is believed to be successful, at the same
time emphasizing another usage of irony, students thought those at Cambridge do not read the papers,
and that it all happens by chance, which one is the luckiest and one’s ”paper is at the top flight are given
firsts” although “most of them end up on the landing and get seconds, and any reaching the ground floor
are failed.” I suppose this is a case of irony hidden in this lines because the marks for sure are given in
the normal, right way, and the papers are checked. Only, students just want to blame someone for their
bad marks, this is an autosuggestion. ” Nobody is right, I am right for all and always”.
Anyway, the author passes on to describe in minor details the process of the oral examination
similarly announcing the third part of the story. Mainly, the author reveals three types of the students
during examination hours: The Nonchalant, the Crammer and the Old Stager. At the same time
describing the examination room with the same hour that persists from the beginning. If the examination
is death, then waiting-room is like a prison, like “a condemned cell”. And at this point, students feel
themselves ready to die in a condemned cell, being prisoners.
However, the author highlights female’s fate during medical examination describing one’s
attractiveness and the gender barrier between women students and professors. In fact, the irony is
captive in the author’s choice of the words, and word-play. For example: “inescapable anatomic
arrangements”, “undeserved sternness”, “prejudice favorably”, etc.
What’s more, Richard Gordon makes an excursus into the proper examination, describing the
process of viva and the days after it being “black” ones and just “like a severe accident”. So, as a matter
of fact, at the end of the story we have students/prisoners that are condemned to death in a condemned
cell after a severe accident. The whole text is an irony. Consequently, sympathizing with students’
feelings waiting for the final marks. As a result, explaining the usual ritual of marks’ announcement
mentioning two ways of receiving the announcement: the chance to go upstairs (certainly comparing it
to heaven) in case the student passed the exam and the unsuccessful ones to go downtown (comparing it
to hell).
At the end of the story the author sums it all up by ridiculing the inner-feelings of the main
character waiting for the results to be told, namely: “The world stood still. The traffic stopped, the plants
ceased growing, etc.”. Adding the last piece of irony here, the author gives a description of student
having confused feelings, and just blindly stumbling the stairs.