What is irony, and what is its’ role in literary works that makes it so important to us? Irony can be defined as a contrast or incongruity between expectations for a situation and reality, which can further more be broken down into three main types of irony: verbal, dramatic, or situational. In both Young Goodman Brown and Sweat, irony is displayed in each story’s situation, from the world not being as good as one sees in Young Goodman Brown, to the epitome of a bad marriage as seen in Sweat. The literary work Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne displays irony mainly through displaying that evil is just a part of the world and human nature, and that man and woman are not all good and believing so can eventually drive one
Irony is one of the rhetorical devices in which it it uncovers the difference between the truth and something expected. Predominantly, it detects the misconceptions or the unfairness of a specific situation. (http://figurativelanguage.net/Irony.html) Most of the time, Frederick Douglass used irony in order to uncover the defect in the reasoning of the issue of slavery. For instance, in the third chapter, Douglass made a description about the obssesive care of his previous master named Colonel Lloyd on his horses.
Authors use the irony in characters to bring out themes into the story. Flannery O’Connor develops the themes, often in the form of a question, of each story based on the irony of characters so the reader can see they irony of their own lives. In the story A Good Man is Hard
Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected.
Hawthorne uses several different types of irony in the story to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Puritans. The first type of irony he uses is dramatic irony which is shown in the beginning of the story. When Goodman Brown heads on his journey to find out some answers about the good versus evil he encounters an old man, a traveler who represents evilness. Goodman Brown had failed to see that the old man was evil. Even after the fact Goody Cloyse cried out “The Devil!”
Irony is the most powerful literary device used in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. First, a good example of irony in the story is “They were burdened with sashweights sand bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.” (P,2 Line, 11-13) This quote is Ironic as it tells how this system was designed to hide beauty, yet beauty was still shown by the amount of restraints on the person. Second, another good example of irony is, “The spectacles were intended to make him not only half-blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.
Irony may appear in difference ways within literature. Irony changes our expectations of what might happen. It can create the unexpected twist at the end of a story or anecdote that gets people laughing or crying. Verbal irony is intended to be a humorous type of irony. Situational irony can be either funny or tragic.
1. Irony as we talked about in class is considered to be intellectual or a sort of dry humor. It also has a double meaning, where you say one thing but the opposite meaning is implied. For example, in the reading “SantaLand Diaries” David and another elf realized that Santa is an anagram of Satan. So they would substitute the word for Santa by using Satan in front of customers.
In the text, Irony is used to really create a lot of the conflicts in the
1. The effects of Eighner’s attention to language in the first five paragraphs emphasizes that he is knowledgeable and confident about dumpster diving. As he states, “I live from the refuse of others. I am a scavenger” (Eighner 108). Eighner create an appeal to ethos when he displays his own experiences on the lifestyle of dumpster diving and its different aspects.
For example, in chapter three,3 Douglass uses irony to describe the excessive attention his master, Colonel Lloyd, pays to his horses. Because they were his prized possession, Lloyd would beat the slaves in charge of taking care of them if the horses misbehaved in any manner. Obviously, it was not the slaves fault, but the horses. Douglass uses irony here to show that Lloyd treats his animals better than he treats the human slaves. What Lloyd did not realize was that slaves were not animals but men, with thoughts and emotions of their own.
The use of irony helped move the plot along, and it made the story easy to read and follow along with. Irony helped show that in times of war, sides don’t exactly matter. You could be a patriot, but then be killed by your own friends, or you could be a loyalist and be killed at the hands of the British. During war, everyone must care for
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” is the narrative of a man named Montresor who seeks vengeance against a man named Fortunato. Fortunato insults Montresor. Next, Montresor meet Fortunato at a carnival, eventually luring him into the catacombs of his home to bury Fortunato alive. Moreover, different types of irony are portrayed in this short story. Dramatic irony consists of the character in the story knowing less about his or her situation than the reader.
Expository Essay Irony can clearly be stated as the use of words that mean the opposite of what we think it means. An example of a story that uses irony is The Cask of Amontillado. Which is about a man named Montresor who believes this other man named Fortunato insulted him. Montresor’s family motto is “no one insults me with impunity”, he feels justified in taking revenge on Fortunato.
Working is one of the many tasks that most adults have to endure. As for Phil, work was not just a task, but was a life commitment that took valuable time away. Ellen Goodman describes her stance of this issue in the piece, “The Company Man,” by employing repetition of important phrases and by showcasing the irony of Paul’s life. This conveys a sense of sympathy for Paul and his family and disapproval of his actions, who let his work consume his life, leading to his death. To begin, the use of repetition allowed Ellen Goodman to show her critical attitude and pity towards Phil.
Twain’s includes dramatic, situational, and verbal irony in the novel, yet he places a special focus on situational irony. For example, the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons leads to situational irony during church. Both families attend the same church where they are taught to show brotherly love toward each other; however, both families bring their guns to church and lean them along the walls or hold them between their legs, the opposite of showing kindness toward one another. Their fighting is also ironic because the feud began thirty years ago and neither family can remember how it started and why they are still fighting. Another example is when Huck and Tom work together to liberate Jim, yet Tom knows that Jim is already declared a free man.