Three Types of Irony

DramaticVerbal

Situational

IS IRONY THE OPPOSITE OF WRINKLY?Ok, so that is a terrible joke! But let’s explore what irony really is

So what is irony?

• Irony is a literary device in which words are used to express a contradiction between appearance and reality— in irony, reality is usually the opposite of what it seems. In literature, there are three types of irony:

There are three types of IRONY

• Situational• Verbal• Dramatic

Situational Irony

• Situational irony is when the outcome of a situation is inconsistent with what we expect would logically or normally occur.

• In other words, it is the opposite of what we expect will be or happen. – An example of situational irony would be if a

thief’s house was broken into at the same time he was robbing someone’s house.

How is this ironic?

This is situational irony.Why?It is because we do not expect to see a fire hydrant of fire. A fire hydrant is supposed to put out fires, not catch on fire!

Verbal Irony

• Verbal irony is when a speaker or writer says one thing but actually means the opposite.– For example, when your mom walks into your

filthy bedroom and says, “I see you’ve cleaned your room!” Sarcasm is one type of verbal irony.

Wow, I can tell you have really studied hard for this test!

This is VERBAL IRONY. The teacher knows he did not study.

Dramatic Irony

• Dramatic irony is when the audience or the reader is aware of something that a character does not know. For example, when Romeo believes Juliet is dead, but the audience knows that she has only been given a potion to sleep.

This is Dramatic Irony

• In Cyrano de Bergerac, the audience knows that Cyrano, a poet and soldier with an enormous nose, and passion to match, loves the beautiful Roxane, who really loves the handsome but not so bright cadet Christian. We also know that Roxane falls in love with Christian during the famous balcony scene, but in reality, the words she falls in love to were those of Cyrano.

Why use IRONY?

• Authors use irony to make a point and bring attention to some important aspect of a story.

• Irony can be both comic and tragic.

So let’s look at some examples.

See if you can figure out the following…

There is a rat infestation at the health department.

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

Mother: “I see you just ironed your shirt.”

Son: “Huh? I just dug it out of the hamper.”

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

A person tweets about what a waste of time Twitter is.

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

You call your friend to tell them what beautiful weather you are

having. Five minutes later a tornado rips through your town.

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

The Emperor is parading through the town without any clothes. We know he is naked, but he thinks he has on a

beautiful suit made of gold.

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

John sells his fishing pole to buy Sarah a new chain for her charm for their

anniversary present. But we know that Sarah sold the charm to buy some new

fishing lures for John.

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

Frank drove to Washington because he was afraid of flying on a plane.

However, on the way he was in a terrible car accident and ended up in

the hospital.• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

Lori went to the doctor to get her flu shot to avoid getting sick. While there, another patient sneezed on her and she caught a terrible cold.

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

Tammy tells her friends. “Jose is such a loser. You should not date him.”

Later she writes in her diary. “Jose is so cute. I hope he asks me to prom.”

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

Now let’s practice with a story.

• Do you remember reading “The Necklace” in 9th grade. Let’s review it.

• I would like you to go to: http://www.balancepublishing.com/neckstry.htm

• Read the story and then find an example of each of the types of IRONY. Write the example, then tell me the type of irony and explain the reason you think it is that type of irony.

Give an example of Irony from “The Necklace”

• Type of Irony: ____________________• Explain your reason:

You will send me an example like this for all Situational, Dramatic, and Verbal Irony.

Send me these in a message!