Definition of Irony
Irony is a word that has been around in my life since I was six years old. I remember it exactly, the day that the word entered my vocabulary. My mom and I were driving to my grandma’s house and I was reading a “Calvin and Hobbes” comic from the paper earlier that morning. Calvin had been saving a snowball in the freezer for 4 months and was going to use it. He snuck up on his nemesis, Suzy, and threw it as hard as he could, and missed. He goes into hysterics, wondering how he could have missed that perfect shot, while, at the same time Suzy is scooping up the pile of snow lying in front of her. Calvin turns in time to see Suzy grinning as she hurls it in his face. The last panel has Calvin lying on the ground
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This means that you can make fun of someone, and make them feel really dumb, which is something that the media loves to do. The T.V. shows “Saturday Night Live”, “Friends”, “Fraiser”, and “The Simpsons” are all perfect examples of irony. “Fraiser” is a show that loves to use the concept of irony to play with the characters of the show, getting them into some precarious situations.
Irony in entertainment isn’t something new though. In greek tragedies, famous playwrights used irony to entertain audiences for years. Sophicles used irony in one of his most famous plays, “Oedipus” where a young couple, who were King and Queen of a land, were told by a prophecy that their son would kill the father. Frightened by this knowledge, they took their son and chained him to a mountain far away. A shepherd found the boy and raised him as his own. The boy grew to become a man, and, while walking on a path, was told to move so that a royal coach may pass. He didn’t want to move and ended up killing all of the guards and the king himself. He then ventured to the next town, which happened to be the city where his parents ruled, and wound up marrying the queen. When they found out what had happened, he took a pin and jabbed out his eyes. The Greeks knew that word as ironia, which is latin. They knew it to mean dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected.
Probably the most famous greek to use
Satire and irony are both used in the literary world in many different ways such as parodies. Satire is a literary work that ridicules its subjects through the use of techniques such as exaggeration, reversal, incongruity. Irony is the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally means the opposite, typically for humorous effect. There’s two types of irony which are: verbal irony and dramatic irony. Verbal irony is when something that is said is supposed to mean the opposite. Dramatic irony is when the reader or audience understands more the events of the story than the character in the story.
Irony is a very big part of a story, because it can create new elements in a story. Some of these elements may include humor and theme. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a great example for this.
Yelling “oh great!” after failing a test demonstrates one example. Someone wouldn’t really be happy about that; the irony is being overly positive about a negative occurrence. When the author writes, “you’re a game hunter not a philosopher, who cares how the jaguar feels” (Connell 18), and when Rainsford becomes the “Jaguar” later it is a little ironic. Connell wanted us to think about how a jaguar feels, and why they would be talking about that. When it came to the part in the story where he was being hunted, the readers think back to where the jaguar is mentioned and might think how that was ironic. The author was effective at showing irony. Another example of irony is, “ ‘...you’ll have a cocktail, Mr. Rainsford,’ he suggested” (Connell 22). He wanted the audience to think about how General Zaroff was being overly nice to a stranger he just met, but then, all of a sudden, changed into a psychopath, a murderer who hunts people for fun. The author made the reader believe Zaroff was generous and kind, and Rainsford probably believed it too. Zaroff acted this way to get Rainsford’s trust, so he could set him free and hunt him
It is often said that irony is the vital literary element to a story because it gives the story character. Whether it changes the mood, creates suspense, adds foreshadowing, engages the reader or something else, irony can do many things for a story.
Irony, a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. Throughout Night there is use of situational and verbal irony. This use of irony keeps the reader interested. The use of irony causes the reader to know things that the characters often are not aware of.
The first case in which he uses irony is when Montresor comes in contact with Fortunato at the Carnival. In this meeting Montresor says, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met." (Poe 80) This is an example of dramatic irony. Although the readers know of Montresor’s plans for revenge, Fortunato has no idea how truly unlucky he is to have come into contact with Montresor at that
woman while everyone thinks he is talking about Zeena. This makes the reader have to
Irony in stories can make it funnier, more interesting, or exciting to read. With some types of irony you can get that sort of suspense to the story. Irony can be in a views in a couple ways; you can have situational when you expect something to happen and the total opposite happens, then you have verbal irony, which is when someone says one thing, but something different is really meant. Then there is dramatic irony, which is when the audience knows but not the character does not. In “Good Country People” (O’Connor 116) there are two types of irony: Situational and dramatic irony. Some of the points of irony in the story are the names in the story including the title, the characters, and the central plot of the story.
If it were possible for irony to be experienced physically after observing an ironic event, this would be the prime example. A man employed at a stress ball packing plant in the UK city of Blackpool was terminated from his temporary job after he punched out his boss and then brandished knives at his co-workers before making a break for it and legging it out the door.
Satire is a literary work that ridicules its subjects through the use of techniques such as exaggeration, reversal, incongruity. Irony is the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally means the opposite, typically for humorous effect. There’s two types of irony which are: verbal and dramatic irony. Verbal irony is when something that is said is supposed to mean the opposite. On the other hand, dramatic irony is when the reader or audience understands more the events of the story than the character in the story.
Irony is most commonly used in dialogue to express sarcasm and humor, however it can also be applied to add depth to literature. Mary Shelley employs irony in Frankenstein to emphasize the truth and prompt her readers to question pivotal concepts. Her use of irony does not intended for humor, but instead, she utilizes ironic devices to enhance her overall themes and convey the unpredictable consequences of actions.
Irony: The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
In the stories “Story of an Hour”, “Everyday Use”, “The Necklace”, and “The Lottery” it is evident that irony was quite a large part of the short story. There is situational irony, which is when the situation turns out differently than expected. Also, dramatic irony is present, which is when you as a reader knows more than the character. The authors seem to base their whole story around irony to surprise their readers.
Irony is usually termed as a technique or way or presenting a topic with one meaning, not disclosing to the reader that a totally different thing has happened. For instance, one might say it is ironic to save up the money to buy your dream car and it sells minutes before you get there. In the mind of someone like Edgar Allan Poe, irony can take one a far deeper meaning. One piece of irony is the name of the victim, Fortunato. This is an Italian word suggesting good fortune. (Cummings, 2005) However, we know from the beginning of the story that his fortune is not good. The more one looks for it, sometimes the more minute the irony can be. Take the description of Fortunato:
People watch other individuals experience irony all the time. When something is ironic it means that the thing that was to happen, did not happen the way it was thought to happen. Sometimes irony happens to those who least expect it or irony happens to everyone. There have been songs, television ads, and stories written about irony or that have included ironic events or details. One piece of literature that contains a lot of irony is Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”. Crane uses irony in many different ways in the story to tell of four individuals who survive their ship being wrecked and everyone else aboard has drown.