Irony and Ambiguity

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Irony and Ambiguity
Feature Menu
Surprises and Uncertainties What Is Irony? Verbal
Irony Situational Irony Dramatic
Irony Review What Is Ambiguity? Practice
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Surprises and Uncertainties
Writers use irony and ambiguity to create
true-to-life stories. Irony and ambiguity help
writers convey

• the way real life surprises us, whether to our
  delight or to our disappointment

• our lack of knowledge about the future and
  whether it will fulfill our expectations

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What Is Irony?
Irony is the contrast between expectation and
reality. Three kinds of irony are

• verbal irony

• situational irony

• dramatic irony

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Verbal Irony
In verbal irony, a speaker says one thing but
means the opposite. Verbal irony

• is the simplest kind of irony

• can become sarcasm if taken to a harsh extreme

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Verbal Irony
Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice begins with an
excellent example of verbal irony.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
single man in possession of a good fortune must
be in want of a wife.
How might this opening sentence be an example of
verbal irony?
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Situational Irony
In situational irony, what actually happens is
the opposite of what is expected or appropriate.
Situational irony

• is often humorous

• may mock human plans and intentions, which in
  real life often come to little

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Situational Irony
Read this sentence from Hanson W. Baldwins
R.M.S. Titanic.
. . . she was fresh from Harland and Wolffs
Belfast yards, strong in the strength of her
forty-six thousand tons of steel, bent, hammered,
shaped, and riveted through the three years of
her slow birth.
Explain the situational irony in this ship
sinking on its first voyage.
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Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or the
audience knows something important that the
character does not know. Dramatic irony

• adds greatly to the tension in stories, plays,
  and movies

• heightens the sense of humor in comedies and
  deepens the sense of dread in tragedies

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Dramatic Irony
In this passage from Stephen Vincent Benéts By
the Water of Babylon, the narrator describes the
vision he has while exploring the ruins of New
York City. What do readers know that the narrator
does not?
When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do
not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and
a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the
Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about
like ants in the streets of their citypoor gods,
poor gods! Then the towers began to fall. A few
escapedyes, a few. The legends tell it. . . . I
saw it happen, I saw the last of them die. It was
darkness over the broken city and I wept.
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Review
Quick Check

• Identify each item as one of the following
• verbal irony
• situational irony
• dramatic irony

After tripping over his own feet, the teen
exclaims, That was graceful!
The movie audience knows that a hostile alien is
just past the door. Dont go in there! one
viewer yells at the screen.
The guest opens his mouthto compliment the chef,
but before he can speak, he burps long and loudly.
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Review
Quick Check

• Identify each item as one of the following
• verbal irony
• situational irony
• dramatic irony

verbal irony
After tripping over his own feet, the teen
exclaims, That was graceful!
dramatic irony
The movie audience knows that a hostile alien is
just past the door. Dont go in there! one
viewer yells at the screen.
situationalirony
The guest opens his mouthto compliment the chef,
but before he can speak, he burps long and loudly.
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What Is Ambiguity?
Ambiguity is the element of uncertainty in a
text, in which something can be interpreted in a
number of different ways. Ambiguity

• adds complexity to a work

• invites readers to propose a variety of
  interpretations of a work

• is found in subtle language and fine distinctions
  in a work

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What Is Ambiguity?
A works theme or mood may be ambiguous.

• If a complex work has more than one theme, the
  works meaning will be ambiguous and multilayered.

• A complex work may shift in tone from humorous to
  serious or from joyful to tragic.

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What Is Ambiguity?
When a work ends in ambiguity, readers must
think about what the ending means. Read the last
lines from R.M.S. Titanic. How do you interpret
the final four words?
The night was clear, reported Lord Mersey,
and the sea was smooth. When she first saw the
rockets, the Californian could have pushed
through the ice to the open water without any
serious risk and so have come to the assistance
of the Titanic. Had she done so she might have
saved many if not all of the lives that were
lost. She made no attempt.
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Practice
Invent an example of each kind of
irony. Describe each example in a paragraph.
Record your examples in a similar chart.
Verbal irony Say one thing but mean the opposite Example
Situational irony What happens is the opposite of what is expected Example
Dramatic irony We know something a character does not know Example
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The End