Types of Irony

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Types of Irony

• Mrs. Caruso
• Please copy all notes in RED

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Verbal Irony

• The use of words to convey something other than,
  and especially the opposite of the literal
  meaning of the words, to emphasize, aggrandize,
  or make light or a circumstance or subject.
• A common example of this is the scenario of a man
  staring out a window looking at a miserably muddy
  rainy day and remarking, "lovely day for a
  stroll.
• It is purposeful, and the speaker is in on the
  joke!

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Dramatic Irony

• Dramatic irony is contingent upon a third party
  witnessing the actions of others and interpreting
  them as ironic, thus you see it most regularly in
  artistic productions.
• Dramatic irony is a big bundle of
  miscommunication, manufactured by a character or
  circumstance clandestine to another character,
  and revealed to the audience. Having this type of
  concealed action be available to the audience
  gives it the ability to know more than what
  certain characters know.
• It is the disconnect, or the contrast between
  what the character says, thinks, or does and the
  true situation that is being faced.

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Tragic Irony

• Essentially a subset of Dramatic Irony.
• In this form of irony the words and actions of
  one character or more betray the real situation
  and tragic results ensue from those words and/or
  actions, about which the spectators are aware
  before the actors.
• Tragic irony is any circumstance in which
  dramatic irony is rampant and leads up to a final
  and tragic event or realization.

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Situational Irony

• Situational Irony occurs in literature and in
  drama when persons and events come together in
  improbable situations, creating a tension between
  expected and real results.
• Situational irony results from recognizing the
  oddness or unfairness of a given situation, be it
  positive or negative.
• Even though a person typically cannot justifiably
  explain this unfairness logically, the
  coincidental nature of the situation is still
  very obvious to those evaluating it. For example,
  if the president of Microsoft, Bill Gates, were
  to win a contest whose grand prize was a computer
  system, the irony would be situational because
  such a circumstance would appear ridiculous or
  "funny" for a number of reasons.

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Litotes

• An ironic type of understatement in which an idea
  is expressed by negating its opposite.
• e.g., Shes not bad-looking. It was not a
  pretty picture.