Dramatic Irony Examples

Ederic Oytas 4/9/18 Per. 5 Anthem By Ayn Rand 105 pp. Signet. $5 Anthem is a novel originally written by Ayn Rand in 1938, then revised and republished in 1946.

Storms make trees grow deeper roots. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird Scout is friends with Dill and her brother Jem. Dill only comes by in the summer, when they are all hanging around they love to play games about how weird Boo Radley is or they try to sneak over to his house and mess around with him. But they don’t realize that later he may be their savoir. Scout learns to look at all situation’s through others' perspectives through messing with Boo Radley and the house he lives in which shows that everyone is unique in their own ways.

Irony is present in everyday life. It has become the crux of thousands of jokes, remarks and even the media. Thousands of stories include irony in them in the form of ironic twists, characters, and plotlines. The irony in stories is often sidelined or overlooked; however, it can be so much more. In “The Veldt”, it is, in fact, a large part of the story.

Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected.

In addition irony is also used in these stories. In "The Story of an Hour" situational irony occurs. "When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: 'free, free, free! '" (527)

Irony is the most powerful literary device used in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. First, a good example of irony in the story is “They were burdened with sashweights sand bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.” (P,2 Line, 11-13) This quote is Ironic as it tells how this system was designed to hide beauty, yet beauty was still shown by the amount of restraints on the person. Second, another good example of irony is, “The spectacles were intended to make him not only half-blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.

Irony may appear in difference ways within literature. Irony changes our expectations of what might happen. It can create the unexpected twist at the end of a story or anecdote that gets people laughing or crying. Verbal irony is intended to be a humorous type of irony. Situational irony can be either funny or tragic.

The short story Lamb of the Slaughter by Ronald Dahl uses situational irony and dramatic irony. The use of the dramatic irony adds humor to the story. Whereas situational irony adds suspense, and leaves the audience wondering. The humor of dramatic irony is that we know how the husband died, and the cops do not . The audience learns that Mary Maloney "swung the big frozen leg of the lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head" (pg. 360).

Dramatic irony occurs when the significance of a character's words, intention, and actions are known to the audience or reader but not the other characters. For example, the relationship between Robert and Edna continues to grow and we know that, but not Mr. Pontellier. Verbal irony is when words

Dramatic irony in Hamlet Dramatic irony is found throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet. The first time dramatic irony is introduced is when the ghost, his father approaches hamlet informing him that his own brother had murdered him to take the crown. Readers, also, see dramatic irony at the ending of act 1 where Hamlet is talking to himself about acting insane. In the next scene we find ophelia very confused by her visit from hamlet, she notices that he acted very strange but she is uninformed on the situation.

In writing, there are multiple types of irony. One type is verbal irony, when the character says something, but means the opposite. This is commonly recognized as sarcasm. Second, there is situational irony, where the outcome is the opposite of what was expected to happen. Last, there is dramatic irony, where the audience is told or informed of something that the characters do not yet know.

Miller uses irony to demonstrate the flaws, the corruption, within the court’s justice system. In this case, it’s emphasized when Giles is found guilty; even though, he did have evidence to prove his accusation. He states, “if Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeits up his property that's law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece”( Miller 89). In addition, he has a witness that heard Putnam thanking his daughter after she cried out on Jacobs.

In “The Interlopers”, irony is a key element the author Saki uses to convey the theme that when people hold grudges, the outcome of the feud is often tragic. The story tells of two rivaling families who lived in the Carpathian mountains, the Gradwitz and Znaeym families. The families quarrel began over the strip of land in between their properties. Both men claimed the land belonged to him and wanted all of it for himself. In the end there was lawsuit stating the land rightfully belonged to the Gradwitzes.

The irony used in “The Story of an Hour,” is dramatic irony. The dramatic irony in the story is the story's characters not knowing that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble. This led to the unanticipated ending of her death from heart disease. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease.”

The television series Shameless depicts a dysfunctional family of Frank Gallagher who is a single father of six children in which he spends most of his days on drugs and having misadventures while his kids learn to take care of themselves and survive with doing petty jobs to keep their house. Among the many characters are Fiona, Carl, and Frank. Fiona is the main protagonist who is like the mother of the family and maintains the family afloat but the other siblings have to do their part in the household. Carl is the second youngest boy in the family who has struggles with fitting in society and tries to find who he is by being apart of different groups. In season six, episode three of the series, each characters uses satirical and comedic devices to address social issues of poverty, society, and parenthood that is shown through verbal irony, dramatic irony and understatement.