irony

Irony - The art of the unexpected

Terms:

  • Irony: the opposite of what you expected to happen

  • Foreshadowing: a reference, a warning, or an indication of (a future event).

  • Situational Irony: when the outcome of the situation is contrary to or different from what is expected

  • Dramatic irony: when the audience knows something that the characters don’t

  • Verbal Irony: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning

    • Sarcasm: using words to mean the opposite of what you’re saying, often in an insulting or cutting way; mock praise

      • Ex. “way to go Sherlock.” “Great! That’s just what I needed today!”

    • Pun: The usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound

      • Ex. “What’s a farmer’s favorite type of car? A coupe.

    • Hyperbole: The use of highly exaggerated language to make a point

      • Ex. “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse”

    • Understatement: A statement that presents something as smaller, less, or worse, than it actually is.

      • Ex. “That was a terrible night,” Doc said simply. (it was way worse than stated)

    • Litotes (lighteties): A statement that asserts something by denying its contrary or opposite

      • Ex. “She was by no means underfed.” “Well, I did not do great on that test.” “I’m not as young as I used to be.”

    • Satire: corrective ridicule

      • Horation Satire: gentle, humorous (sees object as not so bad, but needing a little correction)

      • Juvenalian Satire: harsh, cutting (sees object as evil)(dystopic literature)

  • Paradox: a seeming contradiction

    • Ex. “a good villain” “jumbo shrimp” “the beginning of the end”


THE GRAVE GRASS QUIVERS (Mackinlay Kantor)

  • The biggest piece of irony: Eli Goble tried to do something to cover up his murder (selling his land), but instead, it gave away (revealed) his murder.

  • This was SITUATIONAL IRONY - uncovering it as we went along.

  • Eli Goble worked like “grim death” (verbal irony)


A GERM DESTROYER (Rudyard Kipling)

  • DRAMATIC IRONY: the two characters have been switched (Mellish and Mellishe)

  • The whole time the Viceroy knows that Wonder is trying to take over

    • That’s why he says sarcastically “My inconsistency must always have been distasteful to such a masterly man.” (another type of irony)


EARTH (John Hall Wheelock)

  • VERBAL IRONY: Sarcasm: yes we as people can be really smart, but if you don’t use it correctly, then you are stupid (we blew our planet up)

  • Just after WWI when our nation was trying to “blow itself up”

  • “Highly intelligent people must have been living there.” - Sarcasm


THE GOLF LINKS LIE SO NEAR THE MILL (Sarah N. Cleghorn)

  • Little children work in the mills while the strong men play golf and relax. 

  • This is the opposite of what we would expect (SITUATIONAL IRONY)

    • This is not the way it should be


LETTER FROM A WEST TEXAS CONSTITUENT (J. B. Lee, Jr.)

  • VERBAL IRONY: Horation Satire

  • Don’t do work and we’ll pay you (says the government)

    • He makes fun of the government by poking fun at this that he doesn’t agree with. 


A CONSIDERABLE SPECK (MICROSCOPIC) (Robert Frost)

  • “No one can know how glad I am to find on any sheet the least display of mind”

    • He’s saying most poets and writers have less intelligence than this little bug on his paper.

  • Paradox (Pun): a considerable speck (a big speck?)

  • Juvenalian Satire (harsh)


SCYLLA TOOTHLESS (Anonymous)

  • Epigram 

  • Scylla talked too much: no one listens to her anymore

  • Her tongue (her talk) wore her teeth away (she doesn’t have any more power)

  • We wouldn’t expect her tongue to be wearing the teeth away

  • SITUATIONAL IRONY


AT THE AQUARIUM (Max Eastman)

  • The fish are watching us; we are the ones wondering, wide-eyed

  • SITUATIONAL IRONY: we think we are the ones watching the fish, but the fish are actually watching us


YET IF HIS MAJESTY, OUR SOVEREIGN LORD (Sir Thomas Ford)

  • We would set a huge feast and make sure everything is perfect for the earthly king that is coming

  • For Christ coming back though, everything is in confusion, and we hang on to our sins. We still lodge him in the manger and don’t let him into our hearts.

  • SITUATIONAL IRONY: the opposite of what we would expect