definition essay on irony

Irony Definition

What is irony? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition, don't worry—it is. Irony is a broad term that encompasses three different types of irony, each with their own specific definition:  verbal irony ,  dramatic irony , and  situational irony . Most of the time when people use the word irony, they're actually referring to one of these specific types of irony.

Some additional key details about irony:

• The term "irony" comes from the ancient Greek comic character called the "eiron," who pretends ignorance in order to deceive an opponent. 
• Irony overlaps with, but is not identical to, sarcasm and satire . 
• In the last twenty years or so, the term "ironic" has become popular to describe an attitude of detachment or subversive humor, like that of someone who wears a Christmas sweater as a joke. This more recent meaning of ironic is not entirely consistent with the original meaning of irony (a fact which itself might be described as being somewhat ironic). 

Irony Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce irony: eye -run-ee

Irony in Depth

The term "irony" usually refers to three particular types of irony:

• Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. For example, if someone has a painful visit to the dentist and when it's over says, "Well, that was pleasant," they are using verbal irony because the intended meaning of their words (that it  wasn't at all  pleasant) is the opposite of the literal meaning of the words. Verbal irony is the most common form of irony. In fact it is so common that when people mention "irony," they often are actually referring to verbal irony. 
• Dramatic irony  Is a plot device that highlights the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the audience. When the audience watching a movie know what's behind that door, but the character in the movie has no idea... that's dramatic irony. 
• Situational irony  refers to an unexpected, paradoxical, or perverse turn of events. It is an example of situational irony when, in the O. Henry story " The Gift of the Magi ," a young wife cuts off her hair in order to buy her husband a chain for his prized watch, but the husband sells his watch to buy his wife a comb for her beautiful hair. 

Although these three kinds of irony may seem very different at first glance, they all share one important quality: a tension between how things appear and how they really are. For a more in-depth look at each of these devices, please visit their individual pages.

Also, it's worth knowing that sometimes instances of irony don't quite fit into any of these categories, and instead align with the more general definition of irony as something that seems to be one way, but is in fact another way. Put more broadly: sometimes irony is verbal irony, sometimes it's dramatic irony, sometimes it's situational irony, and sometimes it's just irony. 

Irony, Sarcasm, and Satire

Besides the three main types of irony described above, two other literary devices—sarcasm and satire—share a lot in common with irony:

• Sarcasm is a bitter, cutting, or mocking taunt used to denigrate a particular person, place, or thing. It can sometimes take the form of verbal irony. For instance, if you were to say to someone who had just cut you in line, "What a polite, civilized person you are!" that would be sarcasm in the form of irony, since your meaning is the opposite of the literal meaning of your words. Sarcasm very often involves irony. However, it doesn't always have to use irony. For instance, when Groucho Marx says "i never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception," he is being sarcastic, but his words, however witty they are, mean exactly what they say. 
• Satire is a form of social or political critique. Like sarcasm, it often makes use of irony, but it isn't always ironic.

You can get more details on both sarcasm and satire at their specific pages.

Irony Examples

All three forms of irony are used very frequently in literature, theater, and film. In addition, sometimes the irony found in any of these mediums is broader and doesn't fit into any of the specific categories, and is instead just general irony. 

Irony in "The Sell Out"

" The Sell Out " by Simon Rich is a short story recently published in the New Yorker that is full of irony. The story is narrated by a Polish Jew named Herschel, who lives in Brooklyn in the early twentieth century. Herschel accidentally preserves himself in brine for one hundred years, and when he is finally discovered, still alive, in 2017, he is introduced to his great-great-grandson, a young man who lives in present-day Brooklyn. On Herschel's first day, the great-great-grandson Simon tells Herschel about computers. Herschel describes the scene (note that Hershel's English isn't all that great):

It takes him long time, but eventually Simon is able to explain. A computer is a magical box that provides endless pleasure for free. Simon is used to constant access to this box—a never-ending flow of pleasures. When the box stops working—or even just briefly slows down—he becomes so enraged that he curses our God, the one who gave us life and brought us forth from Egypt.

This description is a great example of irony in the most general sense. The humor stems from the disparity between what seems to be true to Herschel (that computers are magic pleasure boxes) and what is actually true (that computers are, well, computers, and that people are kind of stupidly addicted to them). The use of irony is effective here because Hershel's description, as outlandish as it is, actually points to something that is  true about the way people use computers. Therefore, the disparity between "what is" and "what appears to be" to Herschel isn't merely a comical error; rather, it's ironic because it actually points to a greater truth about its subject.

Verbal Irony in Don Quixote

One famously ironic work is Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote .   At one point, the book's narrator states: 

… historians should and must be precise, truthful and unprejudiced, without allowing self-interest or fear, hostility or affection, to turn them away from the path of truth, whose mother is history.

We can identify the above quotation as an example of verbal irony if we consider that the book's hero, Don Quixote, is fundamentally incapable of distinguishing truth from fiction, and any historian of his life would have to follow a double track of reality and fantasy which continuously overlaps, tangles, and flips. One of the most basic premises of the book is that truth is more difficult to identify than it may seem. Therefore, when the narrator vows to follow the single path of truth, he is being ironic; in reality, he believes this to be impossible. 

Dramatic Irony in Othello

The device of dramatic irony is especially well-suited to the theater, which displays constantly shifting sets, scenes, and characters to a stationary audience that, therefore, often has a more complete or "omniscient" perspective compared to any of the characters. One excellent example of dramatic irony can be found in Shakespeare's  Othello . 

Through the play, the audience watches as Iago plots against his commander Othello, and seeks to make Othello believe that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful to him. The audience watches as Iago plots to himself and with others. Sometimes Iago even directly reveals his plans to the audience. Meanwhile, Othello continues to trust Iago, and the audience watches as the the plan they know that Iago is pursuing slowly plays out just as he intended, and Othello eventually murders the entirely innocent Desdemona. The way that the play makes the audience aware of Iago's plot, even as Othello is not, means that the play is full of dramatic irony almost for its entire length. 

Situational Irony in The Producers

In this classic film, two friends come up with a complicated money-making scheme in which they put on a play that they think is absolutely certain to fail. Their plan backfires when the play, entitled "Springtime for Hitler," is so shockingly bad that people think it's a comedy and come to see it in droves. This is an example of situational irony because the outcome is the exact opposite of what the play's producers expected.

Why Do Writers Use Irony?

Irony is a tool that can be used for many different purposes. Though sarcasm and satire are two ways of using irony that are primarily negative and critical, ironic statements can also underscore the fragility, complexity, and beauty of human experience.

• Situational irony often demonstrates how human beings are always at the mercy of an unpredictable universe—and that life can always take an unexpected turn.
• Dramatic irony emphasizes that human knowledge is always partial and often incorrect, while giving the reader or viewer the satisfaction of a more complete understanding than that of the characters.
• In dialogue, verbal irony can display one character's sparkling wit, and another character's thickheadedness. Verbal irony can also create a connection between people who  get  the irony, excluding those who don't.

Ultimately, irony is used to create meaning—whether it's humorous or profound—out of the gap between the way things appear and how they actually are.

Other Helpful Irony Resources

• The Wikipedia page on irony : A helpful overview.
• The dictionary definition of irony : A basic definition, with a bit on the etymology.
• The comedian George Carlin explaining the difference  between situational irony and mere coincidence.
• A site with a helpful index of examples of different types of irony in television, film, video games, and other media.

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I. What is Irony?

Irony (pronounced ‘eye-run-ee’) is when there are two contradicting meanings of the same situation, event, image, sentence, phrase, or story.  In many cases, this refers to the difference between expectations and reality.

For example, if you go sight-seeing anywhere in the world today, you will see crowds of people who are so busy taking cell-phone pictures of themselves in front of the sight that they don’t actually look at what they came to see with their own eyes.  This is ironic, specifically, situational irony . This one situation has two opposing meanings that contradict expectations: (1) going to see a sight and prove that you were there (2) not enjoying the thing you went to see.

Irony is often used for critical or humorous effect in literature, music, art, and film (or a lesson).  In conversation, people often use verbal irony to express humor, affection, or emotion, by saying the opposite of what they mean to somebody who is expected to recognize the irony.  “I hate you” can mean “I love you”—but only if the person you’re saying it to already knows that! This definition is, of course, related to the first one (as we expect people’s words to reflect their meaning) and in most cases, it can be considered a form of sarcasm.

II. Examples of Irony

A popular visual representation of irony shows a seagull sitting on top of a “no seagulls” sign. The meaning of the sign is that seagulls are not allowed in the area.  The seagull sitting on the sign not only contradicts it, but calls attention to the absurdity of trying to dictate where seagulls may or may not go, which makes us laugh.

Another example is a staircase leading up to a fitness center, with an escalator running alongside it. All the gym patrons are using the escalator and no one is on the stairs. Given that this is a fitness center, we’d expect that everyone should be dedicated to health and exercise, and so they would use the free exercise offered by the stairs. But instead, they flock to the comfort of the escalator, in spite of the fact that they’ve come all this way just to exercise. Once again, our expectations are violated and the result is irony and humor.

Aleister Crowley, a famous English mystic of the early twentieth century, who taught that a person could do anything if they mastered their own mind, died of heroin addiction. This is ironic because the way he died completely contradicts what he taught.

III. The Importance of Irony

The most common purpose of irony is to create humor and/or point out the absurdity of life. As in the all of the examples above, life has a way of contradicting our expectations, often in painful ways. Irony generally makes us laugh, even when the circumstances are tragic, such as in Aleister Crowley’s failure to beat his addiction. We laugh not because the situations were tragic, but because they violate our expectations.  The contrast between people’s expectations and the reality of the situations is not only funny, but also meaningful because it calls our attention to how wrong human beings can be.  Irony is best when it points us towards deeper meanings of a situation.

IV. Examples of Irony in Literature

In O. Henry’s famous short story The Gift of the Magi , a husband sells his prized watch so that he can buy combs as a gift for his wife. Meanwhile, the wife sells her beautiful hair so she can buy a watch-chain for her husband. The characters ’ actions contradict each other’s expectations and their efforts to give each other gifts make the gifts useless.

Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amantillado is full of verbal and situational irony, including the name of the main character. He’s called Fortunato (Italian for “fortunate”), in spite of the fact that he’s extremely unlucky throughout the story.

Water, water everywhere, nor any a drop to drink.

This line from Samuel Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” describes the dark irony of a sailor dying of thirst on his boat while he is surrounded by water.

V. Examples of Irony in Pop Culture

Alannis Morisette’s popular song “Ironic” contains such lyrics as:

Rain on your wedding day A free ride when you’ve already paid Good advice that you just didn’t take

These are not examples of irony . They’re just unfortunate coincidences. However, the fact that her song is called “Ironic” and yet has such unironic lyrics is itself ironic. The title contradicts the lyrics of the song. It isn’t, so your expectations are violated.

In Disney’s Aladdin , Aladdin wishes for riches and power so that he can earn the right to marry Princess Jasmine. Thanks to the genie’s magic, he gets all the wealth he could ask for and parades through the streets as a prince. But, ironically, this makes him unattractive to the princess and he finds himself further away from his goal than he was as a poor beggar. In this case, it’s the contrast between Aladdin’s expectations and results which are ironic.

Related terms

Sarcasm is a kind of verbal irony that has a biting or critical tone, although it can be used to express affection between friends It is one of the most common forms of irony in fiction and in real life. We’ve all heard people use verbal irony to mock, insult, or poke fun at someone or something. For example, here’s a famous sarcastic line from The Princess Bride :

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

In the scene, Wesley is insulting the intelligence of Vizzini the Sicilian using verbal irony (the word “truly” makes it even more ironic, since Wesley is reassuring Vizzini of the truth of an untrue statement). The line is both ironic and mean, and therefore it’s sarcastic . One needs to be a little careful with sarcasm, since you can easily hurt people’s feelings or make them angry.

List of Terms

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What is irony? Well, it’s like rain on your wedding day. It’s a free ride, when you’ve already paid. ’90s radio is helpful here.

Okay; but what is irony? It can often be easier to point to specific ironies than to find a definition of irony itself that hits home.

Irony definition: contradiction of our perceived reality.

At root, irony involves contradiction of our perceived reality. This powerful literary device is often misunderstood or misused, but when wielded correctly, it can reveal deeper truths by highlighting the many strange contradictions and juxtapositions woven through life.

This article examines the different types of irony in literature, including dramatic irony, situational irony, verbal irony, and others. Along the way, we look at different irony examples in literature, and end on tips for using this device in your own writing.

But first, let’s further clarify what this tricky writing technique means. What is irony in literature?

Irony Definition: Contents

Irony Definition: What is Irony in Literature?

Irony vs. sarcasm, irony vs. satire, different types of irony in literature, dramatic irony definition, situational irony definition, verbal irony definition, irony in poetry, types of irony in literature: venn diagram, other types of irony in literature, using irony in your own writing.

Irony occurs when a moment of dialogue or plot contradicts what the audience expects from a character or story. In other words, irony in literature happens when the opposite of what you’d expect actually occurs.

Irony definition: a moment in which the opposite of what’s expected actually occurs; a contrast between “what seems to be” and “what is.”

To put it another way: irony is a contrast between “what seems to be” and “what is.”

For example, let’s say you’re having an awful day. You got stuck in traffic, your head hurt, it was storming all afternoon, the deli messed up your lunch order, and your son’s school called to say he got in a fight. Finally, you get home and check your email, and see a message from the dream job you just interviewed for. You’re expecting the worst, because it’s been such a crappy day, and—you got the job.

As a literary technique, this device primarily accomplishes two goals. First, it allows you to juxtapose contradictory ideas in your writing. By diverging from what the reader or character expects, an ironic plot or dialogue exchange allows opposing ideas to sit side-by-side, creating a fertile space for interpretation and creative inquiry.

Second, irony in literature emulates real life. We’ve all had days like the one described above, where everything seems awful and suddenly the best news reaches us (or vice versa). The real world follows no logical trajectory, and we find ourselves surrounded by competing ideas and realities. Irony makes talking about these contradictions possible.

Because both irony and sarcasm come across as wry statements about certain situations, people often confuse the two terms. However, sarcasm has a much narrower use.

Sarcasm only occurs in dialogue: you can speak something with sarcasm, but an event cannot be sarcastic. Additionally, sarcasm is usually intended to be mean or point at the folly of a certain person. By speaking wryly or ironically about another person’s faults, an individual’s use of sarcasm will often be insulting or derogatory, even if both parties understand that the sarcasm is simple banter. (Sarcasm comes from the Greek for “cutting flesh.”)

For example, let’s say someone you know just came to a very obvious or delayed realization. You might say to them “nice thinking, Einstein,” obviously implying that their intelligence is on the other side of the bell curve.

So, the difference between irony vs. sarcasm is that sarcasm is a verbal insult that points towards someone’s flaws ironically, whereas irony encompasses contradictory ideas, statements, and events. As such, sarcasm is sometimes a form of irony, but only partially falls under a much broader umbrella.

Satire is another term that’s often confused with irony and sarcasm. Satire, like sarcasm, is a form of expression; but, satire is also a literary genre with its own complex history.

Satire is the art of mocking human follies. Often, satire has the goal of critiquing or correcting those follies. A good piece of satire will hold a mirror up against the reader, against politicians, or against society at large. By recognizing, perhaps, our own logical fallacies or erroneous ways of living, satire hopes to help people live more honest, moral lives (as defined by the satirist).

Irony is certainly an element of good satire. We all act in contradictory or hypocritical ways. Irony in satire helps the satirist illuminate those contradictions. But, the two are fundamentally different: irony notices contradictions, whereas satire wields this and other devices to mock human follies.

Learn more about satire (and how to write it!) here:

Satire Definition: How to Write Satire

There are, primarily, three different types of irony in literature: dramatic, situational, and verbal irony. Each form has its own usage in literature, and there are also many sub-types of irony that fall under each of these categories.

For now, let’s define each type and look at specific irony examples in literature.

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the story’s characters do not. As such, fictional characters make erroneous decisions and face certain avoidable consequences. If only they had known what the audience knows!

Dramatic irony definition: when the audience knows something that the story’s characters do not, resulting in poor decision making or ironic consequences.

You will most likely find dramatic irony examples in plays, screenplays, and other forms of theater. Shakespeare employs this device often, as do playwrights like Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, and the filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Nonetheless, fiction writers also employ dramatic irony, particularly when the story involves multiple narrative points of view .

Dramatic Irony Examples in Literature

Shakespeare was truly a master of dramatic irony, as he employed the device to entertain, captivate, and frustrate his audience.

In Romeo & Juliet , Juliet is apparently dead, having taken a strong sleeping potion, and is laid in the Capulet crypt. The message was supposed to be conveyed to Romeo that, upon her waking, the two would run off together. But, this message never arrives, so when Romeo hears of Juliet’s death and goes to her tomb to mourn, he kills himself with poison. The audience knows that Juliet is just asleep, making Romeo’s death a particularly tragic example of dramatic irony.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket is also laden with dramatic irony examples. In The Reptile Room , the narrator addresses this directly:

Of course, this is a series written towards children, so the direct translation of what dramatic irony means might seem a bit juvenile for adult fiction writers. Nonetheless, this excerpt defines the precise feeling that dramatic irony can bestow upon the reader, illustrating it through the contrast of Uncle Monty’s dialogue against the impending doom the Baudelaires face.

(Note: this is not an example of verbal irony, because Uncle Monty’s dialogue is not intentionally contradicting what he means. More on this later in the article.)

Also known as irony of fate, of events, or of circumstance, situational irony describes plot events with unexpected or contradictory outcomes.

Situational irony definition: plot events with unexpected or contradictory outcomes.

Let’s say, for example, your local fire department burns down. Or the new moisturizer you bought actually wrinkles your skin. Or, heaven forbid, you finish working on your manuscript, click “save” for the final time, and your laptop completely shuts down. All of these possibilities point towards the unpredictability of the future—as do the below situational irony examples in literature.

Situational Irony Examples in Literature

Situational irony happens when a certain event or reaction is expected, and an entirely contradictory one occurs.

For example, in the story “ The Gift of the Magi ” by O. Henry, two young lovers have no money to spare, but are trying to find each other the perfect Christmas gift. The girl, Della, has beautiful hair, which she cuts and sells to buy Jim a fob chain for his watch. Jim, in turn, sells his watch to buy Della some combs for her hair. As a result, each lover’s gift turns out to be useless, since each has sold their most prized possession to show their love to each other.

The narrator summarizes this beautiful moment of situational irony thus:

Of course, ironic situations occur all the time in real life, so there are many situational irony examples in nonfiction. This excerpt comes from the essay “ My Mother’s Eyes ” by Henriette Lazaridis:

Certainly, the speaker would not expect to see herself resembled in her mother’s gaunt, dying face, but that’s exactly what happens. This moment of situational irony encourages the reader to examine the relationship between death, family, and heritage.

Verbal irony refers to the use of dialogue where one thing is spoken, but a contrasting meaning is intended. The key word here is intentional: verbal irony is not merely lying or speaking a faux pas, it’s an intentional use of contrasting language to describe something in particular.

Verbal irony definition: An instance of dialogue where one thing is spoken, but a contrasting meaning is intended.

We do this all the time in conversational English. For example, you might walk into a storm and say “wonderful weather we’re having!” Or, if someone is wearing a jacket you love, you might say “that’s hideous!”

We’ve already contrasted irony vs. sarcasm, so as you may have inferred, verbal irony can sometimes be a form of sarcasm. (For example, telling someone with an ugly shirt “nice shirt!”) That said, verbal irony is not always sarcasm, so remember that sarcasm is intentionally used to insult someone’s folly.

Verbal Irony Examples in Literature

Because verbal irony is always spoken, you will almost always see this device utilized in dialogue. (The only time it isn’t used in dialogue is when a narrator, usually first person, speaks to the audience ironically.)

In George Bernard Shaws’ Pygmalian , Professor Higgins’ housekeeper has just told the professor not to swear. To this he replies:

You and I might not think “what the devil” counts as swearing, but it’s certainly ironic for Professor Higgins to invoke the devil after claiming he never swears.

Many more verbal irony examples come to us, again, from Shakespeare. In Othello , the character Iago—a complex antagonist who feigns loyalty to Othello but seeks his demise—proclaims “My lord, you know I love you.” The audience knows that Iago hates Othello, but Othello himself does not know this, making this bit of dialogue particularly ironic.

In a different Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar , Caesar describes Brutus (his later-betrayer) as an “honorable man.” At this point, the audience knows that Brutus plans to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar.

With verbal irony, sometimes the dialogue is understood as ironic by the other characters, and sometimes only by the audience. Either way, an attentive reader will recognize when a character means the opposite of what they say, or when their intentions simply do not align with their speech.

Most of the irony examples in this article have come from fiction. But, poets certainly make use of this literary device as well, though often much more subtly.

Irony occurs in poetry when the poet wants to illuminate contradictions or awkward juxtapositions. T. S. Eliot gives us a great example in “ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock .” The speaker describes a beautiful evening as “a patient etherized on a table.” It’s a rather dramatic metaphor , incongruous with the beauty of the evening itself. Eliot’s poem is, among other things, a lament of modernity, which he believes is corrupting all the beauty in the world. By using a modern medical procedure to describe the natural world, Eliot’s hyperbolic metaphor imparts a subtle, yet vicious, irony about the modern day.

Of course, irony can operate in poetry in much more obvious ways. Here’s an example from Louise Glück, “ Telemachus’ Detachment “:

When I was a child looking at my parents’ lives, you know what I thought? I thought heartbreaking. Now I think heartbreaking, but also insane. Also very funny.

Telemachus is, in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope. This short poem is a commentary on that wild myth (The Odyssey). It is also deeply relatable to any child wondering at their parents’ insane ways of living. It is a poem whose central device is irony, and it uses this device to draw a connection between myth and reality, which are much more similar to one another than they seem.

You may have heard of some other types of irony, such as socratic, historical, or cosmic irony. These forms are technically subcategories of the above 3, but it is useful to make these distinctions, especially as they relate to particular genres of literature.

Cosmic irony in literature: an instance where a character’s outcome in the story is outside of their control. For example, in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles , the titular Tess is a mostly-innocent protagonist to whom one thing after another goes wrong. Despite her innocence, a malevolent series of misfortunes forces her to murder someone, resulting in her imprisonment and execution. The narrator then writes that “Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess.” In other words, Tess is the plaything of fate, and the justice bestowed upon her is extremely ironic, given she is the victim of poor circumstance. This is a subcategory of situational irony (although the narrator’s use of the word Justice is, indeed, verbal irony).

Historical irony in literature: a situation that, in hindsight, was deeply ironic. There are countless examples of this in the real world. For example, gunpowder was invented by Chinese alchemists searching for the elixir of life—if anything, they created an elixir of death. Or, the introduction of the Kudzu vine in the United States was intended to prevent soil erosion, particularly after the dust bowl in the 1930s. Kudzu became an invasive species, choking plants of resources instead of preserving the ecosystem. This form of situational irony occurs countless times in history, showing up whenever a person’s or government’s decision backfires tremendously.

Socratic irony in literature:  the use of verbal irony as part of the Socratic method. The teacher will either pretend to be dumb, or pretend that the student is wise, to draw out the flaws in a student’s argument. While you don’t see this often in literature, it’s a possible rhetorical strategy for teachers, lawyers, and even comedians.

The discrepancy between “what seems to be” and “what is” can prove particularly useful for writers. Irony helps writers delay the reveal of crucial information, challenge the reader’s worldview, and juxtapose contradictory ideas and themes. As such, this literary device can pull together your stories and plays, so long as you wield it effectively and with discretion.

Here are some possibilities for your writing:

Building tension

When the audience knows something that the characters don’t, we can only watch in horror as those characters make ill-informed decisions.

Playing with fate

Why do bad things happen to good people? A commentary on fate—or, at the very least, the seeming randomness of the universe—often goes hand-in-hand with this literary device.

Stringing the plot forward

If every character made perfect decisions, there would be no plot. Irony helps throw characters into challenging, even preventable situations, forcing the story to reckon with that character’s imperfections.

Generating conflict

For many stories, conflict is the engine that drives the plot forward. When a character’s actions and words don’t match, or when the world’s treatment of a character is opposite that character’s moral purity, a good story ensues.

Challenging the reader

What does it mean for society when a fire department burns down, a lung doctor smokes cigarettes, or a government causes chaos by trying to instill democracy? These themes are aided and expounded by the use of irony in literature.

Entertaining exchanges

Whether the narrator speaks wryly to the audience, or two characters have witty banter, verbal irony certainly makes a text more entertaining.

Juxtaposition

What does it mean to love the person you hate? Can justice be served to the most unjust of human beings? The juxtaposition of contradictory themes allows us to examine the world with nuance, discretion, and creativity.

Making fiction true-to-life

We all find ourselves from time to time in the midst of ironic situations. Including irony in your stories isn’t just a clever literary device, it’s an attempt at making your stories as believable as possible.

Master the Different Types of Irony at Writers.com

Does the irony work in your writing? How can you tell? Getting the feedback you need from experienced writers is essential to polishing your craft. Take a look at the upcoming writing courses at Writers.com, where you’ll find the expertise and creativity that takes your writing to the next level.

Sean Glatch

Excellent explanation of terms that are easy to confuse

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What is Irony? | Definition & Examples

"what is irony": a guide for english students and teachers.

View the Full Series: The Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms

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What is Irony? - Transcription (English and Spanish Subtitles Available in the Video. Click HERE for the Spanish transcript)

By Raymond Malewitz , Oregon State University Associate Professor of American Literature

5 November 2019

As we transition from childhood into adulthood, we begin to realize that things, people, and events are often not what they appear to be.  At times, this realization can be funny, but it can also be disturbing or confusing.  Children often recoil at this murky confusion, preferring a simple world in which what you see is what you get.  Adults, on the other hand, often LOVE this confusion-- so much so that we often tell ourselves stories just to conjure up this state.  Whether we run from it or savor it, make no mistake: “irony” is a dominant feature of our lives.

In simplest terms, irony occurs in literature AND in life whenever a person says something or does something that departs from what they (or we) expect them to say or do. Just as there are countless ways of misunderstanding the world [sorry kids], there are many different kinds of irony.  The three most common kinds you’ll find in literature classrooms are verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony .

Verbal irony occurs whenever a speaker or narrator tells us something that differs from what they mean, what they intend, or what the situation requires.  Many popular internet memes capitalize upon this difference, as in this example.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” offers a more complex example of verbal irony.  In the story, a man named Montresor lures another man named Fortunato into the catacombs beneath his house by appearing to ask him for advice on a recent wine purchase.  In reality, he means to murder him.  Brutally.  By walling him up in those catacombs [spoiler alert]!

As the two men travel deeper underground, Fortunato has a coughing fit.  Montresor appears to comfort him in the following richly ironic exchange:

“Come,” I said with decision, “we will go back; your health is precious.  You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as I once was.  You are a man to be missed.  For me it is no matter.  We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible…”

            “Enough,” [Fortunato] said, “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me.  I shall not die of a cough.”

            “True—true,” I replied.”

from_poes_cask_of_amontillado.jpg

If we only paid attention to the appearance of Montresor’s words, we would think he was genuinely concerned with poor Fortunato’s health as he hacks up a lung.  We would also think that Montresor was trying to be nice to Fortunato by agreeing with him that he won’t die of a cough.  But knowing Montresor’s true intentions, which he reveals at the start of the story, we are able to understand the verbal irony that colors these assurances.  Fortunato won’t die of a cough, Montresor knows, but he will definitely die.

This scene is also a great example of dramatic irony .  Dramatic irony occurs whenever a character in a story is deprived of an important piece of information that governs the plot that surrounds them.  Fortunato, in this case, believes that Montresor is a friendly schlub with a terrible wine palette and a curious habit of storing his wine near the dead bodies of his ancestors. The pleasure of reading the story stems in part from knowing what he doesn’t—that he’s walking into Montresor’s trap.  We delight, in other words, in the ironic difference between our complex way of understanding of the world and Fortunato’s simple worldview.

Finally, the story also includes, arguably, a great example of situational irony .  As its name suggests, situational irony occurs when characters’ intentions are foiled, when people do certain things to bring about an intended result, but in fact produce the opposite result.  At the start of the story, Montresor tells his readers that his project will succeed only if he “makes himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.” 

from_poes_cask_of_amontillado_ii.jpg

In other words, Fortunato must not only know that he has been tricked but also why he was tricked and why he must die.  If this is Montresor’s intention, however, he goes about it in a rather strange way, offering Fortunato countless sips of wine on their trip into the catacombs that gets his antagonist pretty drunk.  By the end of the story, Montresor has certainly got away with the crime, but it’s far from certain that Fortunato (or even Montresor) knows why he is given such a terrible death.

So why does Montresor insist on telling us that his story is a success?  One reason might be that he is anxious about the situational irony that envelopes his story and wants to cover the reality of that irony with a simple appearance of triumph.  He’s gotten away with it, and Fortunato knows why he must die.  If readers push back against this desired outcome, testing it against Fortunato’s confusion at being chained to a wall and bricked into place, they travel further than even Montresor is willing to go into the murky catacombs of irony.

Want to cite this?

MLA Citation: Malewitz, Raymond. "What is Irony?" Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms, 5 Nov. 2019, Oregon State University, https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-irony. Accessed [insert date].

Further Resources for Teachers:

Check out the following "What is Irony?" lesson, which models three kinds of irony using Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. We've also included a quiz beneath it.

irony_exercise_with_calvin_and_hobbes.pptx

irony_quiz.docx

Kate Chopin's story "The Story of an Hour" offers students many opportunities to discuss different kinds of irony. These ideas are indirectly discussed in our "What is Imagery?" video.  Many other literary terms can be used for ironic effect, including Understatement , Free Indirect Discourse , Dramatic Monologue , and Unreliable Narrator . Yiyun Li's short story "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" is another story suitable for this kind of analysis.

Writing Prompt: Identify examples of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony in Chopin's or Li's story. When you have made these determinations, explain how they operate together to convey meaning.

Writing Prompt #2: See the prompt in our " What is a Sonnet? " video.

Interested in more video lessons? View the full series:

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What Is Irony? Definition and 5 Different Types of Irony to Engage Readers

by Fija Callaghan

Most of us are familiar with irony in our day to day lives—for instance, if you buy a brand new car only to have it break down on its very first ride (situational irony). Or if someone tells you they love your new dress, when what they actually mean is that it flatters absolutely no one and wasn’t even fashionable in their grandparent’s time (verbal irony).

Ironic understatement and ironic overstatement make their way into our conversations all the time, but how do you take those rascally twists of fate and use them to create a powerful story?

There are countless examples of irony in almost all storytelling, from short stories and novels to stage plays, film, poetry, and even sales marketing. Its distinctive subversion of expectation keeps readers excited and engaged, hanging on to your story until the very last page.

What is irony?

Irony is a literary and rhetorical device in which a reader’s expectation is sharply contrasted against what’s really happening. This might be when someone says the opposite of what they mean, or when a situation concludes the opposite of how one would expect. There are five types of irony: Tragic, Comic, Situational, Verbal, and Socratic.

The word irony comes from the Latin ironia , which means “feigned ignorance.” This can be a contradiction between what someone says and what they mean, between what a character expects and what they go on to experience, or what the reader expects and what actually happens in the plot. In all cases there’s a twist that keeps your story fresh and unpredictable.

By using different kinds of irony—and we’ll look at the five types of irony in literature down below—you can manage the reader’s expectations to create suspense and surprise in your story.

What’s not irony?

The words irony and ironic get thrown around a fair bit, when sometimes what someone’s really referring to is coincidence or plain bad luck. So what constitutes irony? It’s not rain on your wedding day, or or a free ride when you’ve already paid. Irony occurs when an action or event is the opposite of its literal meaning or expected outcome.

For example, if the wedding was between a woman who wrote a book called Why You Don’t Need No Man and a man who held a TEDtalk called “Marriage As the Antithesis of Evolution,” their wedding (rainy or not) would be ironic—because it’s the opposite of what we would expect.

Another perfect example of irony would be if you listened a song called “Ironic,” and discovered it wasn’t about irony after all.

Why does irony matter in writing?

Irony is something we all experience, sometimes without even recognizing it. Using irony as a literary technique in your writing can encourage readers to look at your story in a brand new way, making them question what they thought they knew about the characters, theme, and message that your story is trying to communicate.

Subverting the expectations of both your readers and the characters who populate your story world is one of the best ways to convey a bold new idea.

Aesop used this idea very effectively in his moralistic children’s tales, like “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The two title characters are set up to race each other to the finish line, and it seems inevitable that the hare will beat the tortoise easily. By subverting our expectations, and leading the story to an unexpected outcome, the author encourages the reader to think about what the story means and why it took the turn that it did.

The 5 types of irony

While all irony functions on the basis of undermining expectations, this can be done in different ways. Let’s look at the different types of irony in literature and how you can make them work in your own writing.

1. Tragic irony

Tragic irony is the first of two types of dramatic irony—both types always show the reader more than it shows its characters. In tragic dramatic irony, the author lets the reader in on the downfall waiting for the protagonist before the character knows it themselves.

This is a very common and effective literary device in many classic tragedies; Shakespeare was a big fan of using tragic irony in many of his plays. One famous example comes at the end of Romeo and Juliet , when poor Romeo believes that his girlfriend is dead. The audience understands that Juliet, having taken a sleeping potion, is only faking.

Carrying this knowledge with them as they watch the lovers hurtle towards their inevitable, heartbreaking conclusion makes this story even more powerful.

Another example of tragic irony is in the famous fairy tale “Red Riding Hood,” when our red-capped heroine goes to meet her grandmother, oblivious of any danger. The reader knows that the “grandmother” is actually a vicious, hungry wolf waiting to devour the girl, red hood and all. Much like curling up with a classic horror movie, the reader can only watch as the protagonist comes closer and closer to her doom.

This type of irony makes the story powerful, heartbreaking, and deliciously cathartic.

2. Comic irony

Comic irony uses the same structure as dramatic irony, only in this case it’s used to make readers laugh. Just like with tragic irony, this type of irony depends on allowing the reader to know more than the protagonist.

For example, a newly single man might spend hours getting ready for a blind date only to discover that he’s been set up with his former girlfriend. If the reader knows that both parties are unaware of what’s waiting for them, it makes for an even more satisfying conclusion when the two unwitting former lovers finally meet.

TV sitcoms love to use comedic irony. In this medium, the audience will often watch as the show’s characters stumble through the plot making the wrong choices. For example, in the TV series Friends , one pivotal episode shows a main character accepting a sudden marriage proposal from another—even though the audience knows the proposal was made unintentionally.

By letting the audience in on the secret, it gives the show an endearing slapstick quality and makes the viewer feel like they’re a part of the story.

3. Situational irony

Situational irony is when a story shows us the opposite of what we expect. This might be something like an American character ordering “shop local” buttons from a factory in China, or someone loudly championing the ethics of a vegan diet while wearing a leather jacket.

When most people think about ironic situations in real life, they’re probably thinking of situational irony—sometimes called cosmic irony. It’s also one of the building blocks of the twist ending, which we’ll look at in more detail below.

The author O. Henry was a master of using situational irony. In his short story “ The Ransom of Red Chief ,” two desperate men decide to get rich quick by kidnapping a child and holding him for ransom. However, the child in question turns out to be a horrendous burden and, after some negotiating, the men end up paying the parents to take him off their hands. This ironic twist is a complete reversal from the expectation that was set up at the beginning.

When we can look back on situational irony from the past, it’s sometimes called historical irony; we can retrospectively understand that an effort to accomplish one thing actually accomplished its opposite.

4. Verbal irony

Verbal irony is what we recognize most in our lives as sarcasm. It means saying the opposite of your intended meaning or what you intend the reader to understand, usually by either understatement or overstatement. This can be used for both tragic and comic effect.

For example, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar , Mark Anthony performs a funeral speech honoring the character Brutus. He repeatedly calls him “noble” and “an honorable man,” even though Brutus was actually involved in the death of the man for which the funeral is being held. Mark Anthony’s ironic overstatement makes the audience aware that he actually holds the opposite regard for the villain, though he is sharing his inflammatory opinion in a tactful, politically safe way.

Verbal irony is particularly common in older and historical fiction in which societal constraints limited what people were able to say to each other. For example, a woman might say that it was dangerous for her to walk home all alone in the twilight, when what she really meant is that she was open to having some company.

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , the two younger girls wail that they’ve hurt their ankles, hoping to elicit some sympathy from the strong arms of the men. You can use this kind of rhetorical device to enhance your character development.

5. Socratic irony

Socratic irony is actually a little bit like dramatic irony, except that it happens between two characters rather than between the characters and the reader. This type of irony happens when one character knows something that the other characters don’t.

It’s a manipulative technique that a character uses in order to achieve a goal—to get information, to gain a confession, or to catch someone in a lie. For example, police officers and lawyers will often use this technique to trip someone up: They’ll pretend they don’t know something and ask questions in order to trick someone into saying something they didn’t intend.

Usually Socratic irony is used in a sly and manipulative way, but not always; a teacher might use the Socratic irony technique to make a child realize they know more about a subject than they thought they did, by asking them leading questions or to clarify certain points. Like verbal irony, Socratic irony involves a character saying something they don’t really mean in order to gain something from another character.

Is irony the same as a plot twist?

The “plot twist” is a stylistic way of using situational irony. In the O. Henry example we looked at above, the author sets up a simple expectation at the start of the story: the men will trade in the child for hard cash and walk away happy. Alas, life so rarely goes according to plan. By the time we reach the story’s conclusion, our expectation of the story has been completely twisted around in a fun, satisfying way.

Not all situational irony is a plot twist, though. A plot twist usually comes either at the end or at the midpoint of your story. Situational irony can happen at any time as major plot points, or as small, surprising moments that help us learn something about our characters or the world we live in.

You’ll often see plot twists being compared to dramatic irony, because they have a lot in common. Both rely on hidden information and the gradual unfurling of secrets. The difference is that with a plot twist, the reader is taken by surprise and given the new information right along with the characters. With dramatic irony, the reader is in on the trick and they get to watch the characters being taken off guard.

Both dramatic irony and plot twists can be used quite effectively in writing. It’s up to you as the writer to decide how close you want your readers and your characters to be, and how much you want them to experience together.

How to use irony in your own writing

One of the great advantages of irony is that it forces us to look at things in a new way. This is essential when it comes to communicating theme to your reader.

In literature, theme is the underlying story that’s being told—a true story, a very real message or idea about the world we live in, the way we behave within it, or how we can make it a better place. In order to get that message across to our readers, we need to give them a new way to engage with that story. The innate subversion of expectations in irony is a wonderful way to do this.

For example, the classic fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” uses irony very effectively to communicate its theme: don’t judge a person by their appearance.

Based on our preconceptions of this classic type of fairy tale, we would go in expecting the handsome young soldier to be the hero and the beastly monster to be the adversary. We might also expect the beautiful girl to be helpless and weak-spirited, waiting for her father to come in and save her. In this story, however, it’s the girl who saves her foolish father, the handsome soldier who shows himself to be the true monster, and the beast who becomes a hero to fight for those he cares about.

Not only do these subversions make for a powerful and engaging story, they do something very important for our readers: they make them ask themselves why they had these preconceptions in the first place. Why do we expect the handsome soldier to be noble and kind? Why do we expect the worst from the man with the beastly face before even giving him the chance to speak?

It’s these honest, sometimes uncomfortable questions, more than anything else, that make the theme real for your reader.

When looking for ways to weave theme throughout your story, consider what preconceived ideas your reader might be coming into the story with that might stand in the way of what you’re trying to say. Then see if you can find ways to make those ideas stand on their head. This will make the theme of your story more convincing, resonant, and powerful.

The one mistake to never make when using irony in your story

I’m going to tell you one of life’s great truths, which might be a bit difficult for some people to wrap their heads around. Embrace it, and you’ll leave your readers feeling a lot happier and more satisfied at the end of your story. Here it is:

You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room.

Have you ever been faced with a plot twist in a story and thought, “but that doesn’t make any sense”? Or realized that a surprising new piece of information rendered the events of the plot , or the effective slow build of characterization, absolutely meaningless?

These moments happen because the author became so enamored with the idea of pulling a fast one on the reader, revealing their cleverly assembled sleight-of-hand with the flourish of a theater curtain, that they forget the most important thing: the story .

When using irony in your work, the biggest mistake you can make is to look at it like a shiny, isolated hat trick. Nothing in your story is isolated; every moment fits together as a thread in a cohesive tapestry.

Remember that even if an ironic turn is unexpected, it needs to make sense within the world of your story. This means within the time and place you’ve created—for instance, you wouldn’t create an ironic twist in a medieval fantasy by suddenly having a character whip out a cellphone—but also within the world of your characters.

For example, if it turns out your frail damsel in distress is actually a powerful sorceress intent on destroying the hero, that’s not something you can just drop into your story unannounced like a grenade (no matter how tempting it might be). You need to begin laying down story seeds for that moment right from the beginning. You want your reader to be able to go back and say “ ohhh , I see what they did there. It all makes sense now.”

Irony—in particular the “twist ending”—can be fun, surprising, and unexpected, but it also needs to be a natural progression of the world you’ve created.

Irony is a literary device that reveals new dimension

To understand irony, we need to understand expectation in our audience or readers. When you’re able to manipulate these expectations, you engage your audience in surprising ways and maybe even teach them something new.

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What Is Irony? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Irony definition.

Irony  (EYE-run-ee) is a literary device in which a word or event means something different—and often contradictory—to its actual meaning. At its most fundamental, irony is a difference between reality and something’s appearance or expectation, creating a natural tension when presented in the  context  of a story. In recent years, irony has taken on an additional meaning, referring to a situation or joke that is subversive in nature; the fact that the term has come to mean something different than what it actually does is, in itself, ironic.

The history of the word points to its somewhat deceptive nature. It comes from the Ancient Greek  eiron , meaning a stock character in early theatrical productions who feigns ignorance to fool someone else.

Types of Irony

When someone uses irony, it is typically in one of the three ways: verbal, situational, or dramatic.

Verbal Irony

In this form of irony, the speaker says something that differs from—and is usually in opposition with—the real meaning of the word(s) they’ve used. Take, for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s short story  “The Cask of Amontillado.”  As Montresor encloses Fortunato into the catacombs’ walls, he mocks Fortunato’s plea—”For the love of God, Montresor!”—by replying, “Yes, for the love of God!” Poe uses this to underscore how Montresor’s actions are anything but loving or humane—thus, far from God.

Situational Irony

This occurs when there is a difference between the intention of a specific situation and its result. The result is often unexpected or contrary to a person’s goal. The entire  plot  of L. Frank Baum’s  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz  hinges on situational irony. Dorothy and her friends spend the story trying to reach the Wizard so Dorothy can find a way back home, but in the end, the Wizard informs her that she had the power and knowledge to return home all along.

Dramatic Irony

Here, there is a disparity in how a character understands a situation and how the audience understands it. In Henrik Ibsen’s play  A Doll’s House , the married Nora excitedly anticipates the day when she’ll be able to repay Krogstad, who illegally lent her money. She imagines a future “free from care,” but the audience understands that, because Nora must continue to lie to her husband about the loan, she will never be free.

Not all irony adheres perfectly to one of these definitions. In some cases, irony is simply irony, where something’s appearance on the surface is substantially different from the truth.

Irony vs. Coincidence

Irony is often confused with coincidence. Though there is some overlap between the two terms, they are not the same thing. Coincidence describes two or more unlikely activities that share unexplainable similarities. It is often confused with situational irony. For example, finding out a friend you made in adulthood went to your high school is a coincidence, not an ironic event. Additionally, coincidence isn’t classifiable by type.

Irony, on the other hand, has a much starker and more substantial disparity between intention and result, with the result often the direct opposite of the intention. For example, the fact that the word  lisp  is ironic, considering it refers to an inability to properly pronounce  s  sounds but itself contains an  s .

The Functions of Irony

How an author uses irony depends on their intentions and the story or scene’s larger  context . In much of literature, irony highlights a larger point the author is making—often a commentary on the inherent difficulties and messiness of human existence.

With verbal irony, a writer can demonstrate a character’s intelligence, wit, or snark—or, as in the case of “ The Cask of Amontillado ,” a character’s unmitigated evil. It is primarily used in dialogue and rarely offers up any insight into the plot or meaning of a story.

With dramatic irony, a writer illustrates that knowledge is always a work in progress. It reiterates that people rarely have all the answers in life and can easily be wrong when they don’t have the right information. By giving readers knowledge the characters do not have, dramatic irony keeps readers engaged in the story; they want to see if and when the characters learn this information.

Finally, situational irony is a statement on how random and unpredictable life can be. It showcases how things can change in the blink of an eye and in bigger ways than one ever anticipated. It also points out how humans are at the mercy of unexplained forces, be they spiritual, rational, or matters of pure chance.

Irony as a Function of Sarcasm and Satire

Satire and  sarcasm  often utilize irony to amplify the point made by the speaker.

Sarcasm is a rancorous or stinging expression that disparages or taunts its subject. Thus, it usually possesses a certain amount of irony. Because inflection conveys sarcasm more clearly, saying a sarcastic remark out loud helps make the true meaning known. If someone says “Boy, the weather sure is beautiful today” when it is dark and storming, they’re making a sarcastic remark. This statement is also an example of verbal irony because the speaker is saying something in direct opposition to reality. But an expression doesn’t necessarily need to be verbal to communicate its sarcastic nature. If the previous example appeared in a written work, the application of italics would emphasize to the reader that the speaker’s use of the word  beautiful  is suspect. To further clarify, the remark would closely precede or follow a description of the day’s unappealing weather.

Satire is an entire work that critiques the behavior of specific individuals, institutions, or societies through outsized humor. Satire normally possesses both irony and sarcasm to further underscore the illogicality or ridiculousness of the targeted subject. Satire has a long history in literature and popular culture. The first known satirical work, “The Satire of the Trades,” dates back to the second millennium BCE. It discusses a variety of trades in an exaggerated, negative light, while presenting the trade of writer as one of great honor and nobility.  Shakespeare  famously satirized the cultural and societal norms of his time in many of his plays. In 21st-century pop culture,  The Colbert Report  was a political satire show, in which host Stephen Colbert played an over-the-top conservative political commentator. By embodying the characteristics—including vocal qualities—and beliefs of a stereotypical pundit, Colbert skewered political norms through abundant use of verbal irony. This is also an example of situational irony, as the audience knew Colbert, in reality, disagreed with the kind of ideas he was espousing.

Uses of Irony in Popular Culture

Popular culture has countless examples of irony.

One of the most predominant, contemporary references, Alanis Morissette’s hit song “Ironic” generated much controversy and debate around what, exactly, constitutes irony. In the song, Morissette sings about a variety of unfortunate situations, like rainy weather on the day of a wedding, finding a fly floating in a class of wine, and a death row inmate being pardoned minutes after they were killed. Morissette follows these lines with the question, “Isn’t it ironic?” In reality, none of these situations is ironic, at least not according to the traditional meaning of the word. These situations are coincidental, frustrating, or plain bad luck, but they aren’t ironic. The intended meaning of these examples is not disparate from their actual meanings. For instance, another line claims that having “ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife” is ironic. This would only be ironic, if, say, the person being addressed made knives for a living. Morissette herself has acknowledged the debate and asserted that the song itself is ironic because none of the things she sings about are ironic at all.

Pixar/Disney’s movie  Monsters, Inc.  is an example of situational irony. In the world of this movie, monsters go into the human realm to scare children and harvest their screams. But, when a little girl enters the monster world, it’s revealed that the monsters are actually terrified of children. There are also moments of dramatic irony. As protagonist Sully and Mike try to hide the girl’s presence, she instigates many mishaps that amuse the audience because they know she’s there but other characters have no idea.

In the iconic television show  Breaking Bad , DEA agent Hank Schrader hunts for the elusive drug kingpin known as Heisenberg. But what Hank doesn’t know is that Heisenberg is really Walter White, Hank’s brother-in-law. This is a perfect example of dramatic irony because the viewers are aware of Walter’s secret identity from the moment he adopts it.

Examples of Irony in Literature

1. Jonathan Swift,  “A Modest Proposal”

Swift’s 1729 essay is a satire rich in verbal ironies. Under the guise of a serious adviser, Swift suggests a way that poor Irish communities can improve their lot in life: selling their children to rich people. He even goes a step further with his advice:

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

Obviously, Swift does not intend for anyone to sell or eat children. He uses verbal ironies to illuminate class divisions, specifically many Britons’ attitudes toward the Irish and the way the wealthy disregard the needs of the poor.

2. William Shakespeare,  Titus Andronicus

This epic Shakespeare tragedy is brutal, bloody, farcical, and dramatically ironic. It concerns the savage revenge exacted by General Titus on those who wronged him. His plans for revenge involve Tamora, Queen of the Goths, who is exacting her own vengeance for the wrongs she feels her sons have suffered. The audience knows from the outset what these characters previously endured and thus understand the true motivations of Titus and Tamora.

In perhaps the most famous scene, and likely one of literature’s most wicked dramatic ironies, Titus slays Tamora’s two cherished sons, grinds them up, and bakes them into a pie. He then serves the pie to Tamora and all the guests attending a feast at his house. After revealing the truth, Titus kills Tamora—then the emperor’s son, Saturninus, kills Titus, then Titus’s son Lucius kills Saturninus and so on.

3. O. Henry,  “The Gift of the Magi”

In this short story, a young married couple is strapped for money and tries to come up with acceptable Christmas gifts to exchange. Della, the wife, sells her hair to get the money to buy her husband Jim a watchband. Jim, however, sells his watch to buy Della a set of combs. This is a poignant instance of situational irony, the meaning of which O. Henry accentuates by writing that, although “[e]ach sold the most valuable thing he owned in order to buy a gift for the other,” they were truly “the wise ones.” That final phrase compares the couple to the biblical Magi who brought gifts to baby Jesus, whose birthday anecdotally falls on Christmas Day.

4. Margaret Atwood,  The Handmaid’s Tale

Atwood’s dystopian novel takes place in a not-too-distant America. Now known as Gilead, it is an isolated and insular country run by a theocratic government. Since an epidemic left many women infertile, the government enslaves those still able to conceive and assigns them as handmaids to carry children for rich and powerful men. If a handmaid and a Commander conceive, the handmaid must give the child over to the care of the Commander and his wife. Then, the handmaid is reassigned to another “post.”

A primary character in the story is Serena Joy, a Commander’s wife. In one of the book’s many ironic instances, it is revealed that Serena, in her pre-Gilead days, was a fierce advocate for a more conservative society. Though she now has the society she fought for, women—even Commanders’ wives—have few rights. Thus, she ironically suffers from the very reforms she spearheaded.

Further Resources on Irony

The Writer  has  an article  about writing and understanding irony in fiction.

Penlighten ‘s detailed  list of irony examples  includes works mainly from classic literature.

Publishing Crawl  offers  five ways to incorporate dramatic irony into your writing .

Harvard Library has an in-depth breakdown of  the evolution of irony in postmodern literature .

TV Tropes  is  a comprehensive resource for irony  in everything from literature and anime to television and movies.

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20 Irony Examples: In Literature and Real Life

Millie Dinsdale

Irony occurs when what happens is the opposite from what is expected.

Writers use irony as a literary technique to add humor, create tension, include uncertainty, or form the central plot of a story.

We will be looking at the four types of irony (three common and one uncommon) and providing examples and tips to help you identify and use them in your work.

Quick Reminder of What Irony Is

Irony examples in literature, irony examples in real life, which scenario is an example of irony.

Irony is a rhetorical device in which the appearance of something is opposite to its reality .

There are four main types of irony: verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony, and Socratic irony . Socratic irony is not a literary device, and therefore we will not be looking at examples, but it is worth being aware of.

• Verbal Irony is when a speaker says one thing but means something entirely different. The literal meaning is at odds with the intended meaning.
• Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that the characters don’t.
• Situational Irony is when what happens is the opposite of what you expect.
• Socratic Irony is when a person feigns ignorance in order to get another to admit to knowing or doing something. It is named after Socrates, the Greek philosopher, who used this technique to tease information out of his students.

Why is irony important to understand? Along with being a key rhetorical device, irony can also be very effective when used correctly in writing.

To demonstrate this fact we have selected ten examples of irony usage from popular literature. Warning: this list includes a few spoilers.

1) The main characters’ wishes in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are a perfect example of situational irony .

The characters go on a quest to fulfill their hearts’ desires and instead of doing so they realize that they already had what they wanted all along. It is unexpected because the reader might assume that all of their desires will be gifted to the four main characters but, in the end, it’s unnecessary.

2) The conclusion between the two primary opponents in The Night Circus contains a large amount of situational irony .

The reader is led to expect that either Marco or Celia will win but, in the end, they both end up working together to keep their creation alive. The competition is not as black and white (pardon the pun) as it initially seems.

3) The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is full of verbal irony . A great example of this is when Dr Jekyll says “I am quite sure of him,” when referring to Mr Hyde.

This is verbal irony because the reader finds out that Hyde is actually Jekyll’s alter ego, so it would be expected that he knows himself well.

4) Shakespeare creates dramatic irony in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet through the line: “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”

This well-known example is ironic because the reader knows from the very beginning that their romance will end in death, but they don’t yet know how.

5) Alice’s changing relationship with the Bandersnatch in Alice in Wonderland is situationally ironic .

When we first meet the Bandersnatch, he is ferocious and attempts to harm Alice. When Alice returns his eye, they become friends and the two work together to defeat the Jabberwocky. The audience expects to see an enemy but are instead presented with an ally.

6) George Orwell masters situational irony in Animal Farm through the animals’ endless and fruitless battle to obtain freedom.

All of the animals work together to escape the tyranny of the humans who own them. In doing so they end up under the even stricter rule of the pigs.

7) Roald Dahl’s short story A Lamb to a Slaughter is full of dramatic irony .

A housewife kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb when he asks for a divorce. The police come looking for evidence and unknowingly dispose of it when they are fed the murder weapon for dinner.

8) The repeated line “May the odds be ever in your favor” in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is verbally ironic .

Everyone from district 1 through 12 can be offered as a child sacrifice and has a 1/24 chance of surviving. Even if they do survive they are then delivered back under the control of the Capitol, so the odds are in nobody’s favor.

9) The disparity between children and adults in Roald Dahl’s Matilda is situationally ironic .

Most of the adults in Matilda’s life are hot-headed, uneducated, and unreasonable, while she as a six-year old is more mature than most of them. The traditional roles of child and adult are unexpectedly flipped on their heads.

10) The hit-and-run in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is situationally ironic .

Daisy Buchanan kills Myrtle when Myrtle runs in front of Gatsby’s car. It is ironic because Myrtle is Tom Buchanan’s mistress but Daisy does not know this. She unintentionally killed her husband's mistress.

Irony works so well in literature because it is so common in real life. Have you ever found yourself saying “well that’s ironic” to a situation in your life?

You could be talking about verbal, situational, or dramatic irony. Let’s take a look at a few everyday examples of each type.

11) When you find out that your pulmonologist (lung doctor) smokes.

This is situationally ironic because you’d expect this doctor of all people to avoid smoking because they understand all of the risks.

12) When someone falls over for the tenth time while ice-skating and says “I meant to do that.”

This person cannot be intending to fall over all the time but they are using verbal irony to make light of a possibly painful situation.

13) Your dog eats his certificate of dog-training obedience.

You would expect that in the process of having obtained an obedience certificate, the dog would also have learnt not to eat random objects. This is an example of situational irony .

14) The fire hydrant is on fire.

This is situationally ironic because the last thing that you would expect to be on fire is the object that is designed to fight fires. A similar example to this would be if a fire station were on fire.

15) A girl is teasing her friend for having mud on his face but she doesn’t know that she also has mud on her face.

From the point of view of the friend, this is an example of dramatic irony because he knows something that she does not.

16) Your mom buys a non-stick pan but has to throw it away because the label is so sticky she cannot get it off.

You would predict that the pan was completely non-stick but are proven wrong at the first hurdle, which is situationally ironic .

17) When someone crashes into a “thank you for driving carefully'' sign.

The vision of a car crashed into the sign makes it clear that they did not drive carefully at all, which is situationally ironic .

18) Buying your English teacher a mug that reads “your the best teacher ever.”

The poor English teacher may feel like they have failed in their job in this situationally ironic situation where their student has bought them a mug with a grammar mistake.

19) When a child says “I want crisps now!” and the parent says: “Thank you so much for using your good manners.”

The child is being impolite and the parent is not actually congratulating the child on their manners in this example of verbal irony . They mean the exact opposite.

20) You can’t open your new scissors because you don’t have any scissors to cut through the plastic.

This example of situational irony is far too common. In buying scissors, it can be expected that you do not have any, so it is ironic that the packaging is designed for someone who already has a pair.

Are you ready for a quick quiz to test your knowledge of irony? The test is split into the three types of irony.

Which of These Are Examples of Situational Irony?

1) A police station is robbed.

2) A child loses his rucksack after being told to take care not to lose it.

3) A person eats sweets while preaching about healthy eating

Only 1) and 3) are examples of situational irony. Sentence 2) is not a situational irony example because it could be expected that the child might lose the rucksack and that is why they were told to take care.

It would, however, be ironic if he subsequently lost his “Most Organized in 2nd Grade” certificate five minutes after being awarded it.

Which of These Are Examples of Verbal Irony?

1) Saying “The weather is lovely today” while it is hailing.

2) “Wow that perfume is so lovely, did you bathe in it?”

3) Saying “Thank you so much for your help” after someone has crushed your new glasses while helping to look for them.

Only example 1) is verbally ironic, the other two are sarcastic comments.

Verbal irony and sarcasm are often confused but there is one big difference between them: verbal irony is when what you say is the opposite of what you mean while sarcasm is specifically meant to embarrass or insult someone.

Which of These Are Examples of Dramatic Irony?

1) A small ship without life boats is stuck in a monumental storm in the middle of the Atlantic.

2) Three characters are killed and a fourth seems to be going the same way.

3) A girl walks down the same alley we have just seen a known murderer walk down.

Only option 3) is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows that the murderer is down the alley but the girl does not.

Although the other two examples are undeniably dramatic, there is no inherent irony because the audience has no more knowledge about what will happen than those involved.

Why Should You Use Irony in Your Writing?

Irony can be an effective tool to make a reader stop and think about what has just happened.

It can also emphasize a central theme or idea by adding an unexpected twist to the events of the story.

What brilliant examples of irony in literature have we missed? Share your favorites in the comments.

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Millie is ProWritingAid's Content Manager. Aa an English Literature graduate, she loves all things books and writing. When she isn't working, Millie enjoys adding to her vast indoor plant collection, dancing, re-reading books by Daphne Du Maurier, and running.

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What Is Rhetorical Irony?

Definitions and Interpretations of Rhetorical Irony

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

"To say one thing but to mean something else" — that may be the simplest definition of irony . But in truth, there's nothing at all simple about the rhetorical concept of irony. As J.A. Cuddon says in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (Basil Blackwell, 1979), irony "eludes definition," and "this elusiveness is one of the main reasons why it is a source of so much fascinated inquiry and speculation."

To encourage further inquiry (rather than reduce this complex trope to simplistic explanations), we've gathered a variety of definitions and interpretations of irony, both ancient and modern. Here you'll find some recurrent themes as well as some points of disagreement. Does any one of these writers provide the single "right answer" to our question? No. But all provide food for thought.

We begin on this page with some broad observations about the nature of irony — a few standard definitions along with attempts to classify the different types of irony. On page two, we offer a brief survey of the ways that the concept of irony has evolved over the past 2,500 years. Finally, on pages three and four, a number of contemporary writers discuss what irony means (or seems to mean) in our own time.

Definitions and Types of Irony

• The Three Basic Features of Irony The principal obstacle in the way of a simple definition of irony is the fact that irony is not a simple phenomenon. . . . We have now presented, as basic features for all irony, (i) a contrast of appearance and reality, (ii) a confident unawareness (pretended in the ironist, real in the victim of the irony) that the appearance is only an appearance, and (iii) the comic effect of this unawareness of a contrasting appearance and reality. (Douglas Colin Muecke, Irony , Methuen Publishing, 1970)
• Five Kinds of Irony Three kinds of irony have been recognized since antiquity: (1) Socratic irony . a mask of innocence and ignorance adopted to win an argument. . . . (2) Dramatic or tragic irony , a double vision of what is happening in a play or real-life situation. . . . (3) Linguistic irony , a duality of meaning, now the classic form of irony. Building on the idea of dramatic irony, the Romans concluded that language often carries a double message, a second often mocking or sardonic meaning running contrary to the first. . . . In modern times, two further conceptions have been added: (1) Structural irony , a quality that is built into texts, in which the observations of a naive narrator point up deeper implications of a situation. . . . (2) Romantic irony , in which writers conspire with readers to share the double vision of what is happening in the plot of a novel, film, etc. (Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language , Oxford University Press, 1992)
• Applying Irony Irony's general characteristic is to make something understood by expressing its opposite. We can therefore isolate three separate ways of applying this rhetorical form. Irony can refer to (1) individual figures of speech ( ironia verbi ); (2) particular ways of interpreting life ( ironia vitae ); and (3) existence in its entirety ( ironia entis ). The three dimensions of irony--trope, figure, and universal paradigm--can be understood as rhetorical, existential, and ontological. (Peter L. Oesterreich, "Irony," in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric , edited by Thomas O. Sloane, Oxford University Press, 2001)
• Metaphors for Irony Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment, insinuating the most galling satire under the phraseology of panegyric; placing its victim naked on a bed of briars and thistles, thinly covered with rose leaves; adorning his brow with a crown of gold, which burns into his brain; teasing, and fretting, and riddling him through and through with incessant discharges of hot shot from a masked battery; laying bare the most sensitive and shrinking nerves of his mind, and then blandly touching them with ice, or smilingly pricking them with needles. (James Hogg, "Wit and Humour," in Hogg's Instructor , 1850)
• Irony & Sarcasm Irony must not be confused with sarcasm , which is direct: Sarcasm means precisely what it says, but in a sharp, bitter, cutting, caustic, or acerb manner; it is the instrument of indignation, a weapon of offense, whereas irony is one of the vehicles of wit. (Eric Partridge and Janet Whitcut, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English , W.W. Norton & Company, 1997)
• Irony, Sarcasm, & Wit George Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie shows appreciation for subtle rhetorical irony by translating "ironia" as "Drie Mock." I tried to find out what irony really is, and discovered that some ancient writer on poetry had spoken of ironia, which we call the drye mock, and I cannot think of a better term for it: the drye mock. Not sarcasm, which is like vinegar, or cynicism, which is often the voice of disappointed idealism, but a delicate casting of a cool and illuminating light on life, and thus an enlargement. The ironist is not bitter, he does not seek to undercut everything that seems worthy or serious, he scorns the cheap scoring-off of the wisecracker. He stands, so to speak, somewhat at one side, observes and speaks with a moderation which is occasionally embellished with a flash of controlled exaggeration. He speaks from a certain depth, and thus he is not of the same nature as the wit, who so often speaks from the tongue and no deeper. The wit's desire is to be funny, the ironist is only funny as a secondary achievement. (Roberston Davies, The Cunning Man , Viking, 1995)
• Cosmic Irony There are two broad uses in everyday parlance. The first relates to cosmic irony and has little to do with the play of language or figural speech. . . . This is an irony of situation, or an irony of existence; it is as though human life and its understanding of the world is undercut by some other meaning or design beyond our powers. . . . The word irony refers to the limits of human meaning; we do not see the effects of what we do, the outcomes of our actions, or the forces that exceed our choices. Such irony is cosmic irony, or the irony of fate. (Claire Colebrook, Irony: The New Critical Idiom , Routledge, 2004)

A Survey of Irony

• Socrates, That Old Fox The most influential model in the history of irony has been the Platonic Socrates. Neither Socrates nor his contemporaries, however, would have associated the word  eironeia  with modern conceptions of Socratic irony. As Cicero put it, Socrates was always "pretending to need information and professing admiration for the wisdom of his companion"; when Socrates' interlocutors were annoyed with him for behaving in this way they called him  eiron , a vulgar term of reproach referring generally to any kind of sly deception with overtones of mockery. The fox was the symbol of the  eiron . All serious discussions of  eironeia  followed upon the association of the word with Socrates. (Norman D. Knox, "Irony,"  The Dictionary of the History of Ideas , 2003)
• The Western Sensibility Some go so far as to say that Socrates' ironic personality inaugurated a peculiarly Western sensibility. His irony, or his capacity  not  to accept everyday values and concepts but live in a state of perpetual question, is the birth of philosophy, ethics, and consciousness. (Claire Colebrook,  Irony: The New Critical Idiom , Routledge, 2004)
• Skeptics and Academics It is not without cause that so many excellent philosophers became Skeptics and Academics, and denied any certainty of knowledge or comprehension, and held opinions that the knowledge of man extended only to appearances and probabilities. It is true that in Socrates it was supposed to be but a form of irony,  Scientiam dissimulando simulavit , for he used to dissemble his knowledge, to the end to enhance his knowledge. (Francis Bacon,  The Advancement of Learning , 1605)
• From Socrates to Cicero "Socratic irony," as it is constructed in Plato's dialogues, is therefore a method of mocking and unmasking the presumed knowledge of his interlocutors, consequently leading them to truth (Socratic  maieutics ). Cicero establishes irony as a rhetoric figure which blames by praise and praises by blame. Apart from this, there is the sense of "tragic" (or "dramatic") irony, which focuses on the contrast between the protagonist's ignorance and the spectators, who are aware of his fatal destiny (as for example in  Oedipus Rex ). ("Irony," in  Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters , edited by Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen, Rodopi, 2007)
• Quintilian Onwards Some of the rhetoricians recognize, though almost as if in passing, that irony was much more than an ordinary rhetorical figure. Quintilian says [in  Institutio Oratoria , translated by H.E. Butler] that "in the  figurative  form of irony the speaker disguises his entire meaning, the disguise being apparent rather than confessed. . . ." But having touched on this borderline where irony ceases to be instrumental and is sought as an end in itself, Quintilian draws back, quite properly for his purposes, to his functional view, and in effect carries nearly two millennia worth of rhetoricians along with him. It was not until well into the eighteenth century that theorists were forced, by explosive developments in the use of irony itself, to begin thinking about ironic effects as somehow self-sufficient literary ends. And then of course irony burst its bounds so effectively that men finally dismissed merely functional ironies as not even ironic, or as self-evidently less artistic. (Wayne C. Booth,  A Rhetoric of Irony , University of Chicago Press, 1974)
• Cosmic Irony Revisited In  The Concept of Irony  (1841), Kierkegaard elaborated the idea that irony is a mode of seeing things, a way of viewing existence. Later, Amiel in his  Journal Intime  (1883-87) expressed the view that irony springs from a perception of the absurdity of life. . . . Many writers have distanced themselves to a vantage point, a quasi-godlike eminence, the better to be able to view things. The artist becomes a kind of god viewing creation (and viewing his own creation) with a smile. From this it is a short step to the idea that God himself is the supreme ironist, watching the antics of human beings (Flaubert referred to a "blague supérieure") with a detached, ironical smile. The spectator in the theatre is in a similar position. Thus the everlasting human condition is regarded as potentially absurd. (J.A. Cuddon, "Irony,"  A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory , Basil Blackwell, 1979)
• Irony in Our Time I am saying that there seems to be one dominating form of modern understanding; that it is essentially ironic; and that it originates largely in the application of mind and memory to the events of the Great War [World War I]. (Paul Fussell,  The Great War and Modern Memory , Oxford University Press, 1975)
• Supreme Irony With supreme irony, the war to "make the world safe for democracy" [World War I] ended by leaving democracy more unsafe in the world than at any time since the collapse of the revolutions of 1848." (James Harvey Robinson,  The Human Comedy , 1937)

Contemporary Observations on Irony

• The New Irony The one truth the new irony has to tell us is that the man who uses it has no place to stand except in momentary community with those who seek to express a comparable alienation from other groups. The one conviction it expresses is that there are really no sides left: No virtue to oppose to corruption, no wisdom to oppose to cant. The one standard it accepts is that on which the simple man--the untutored non-ironist who fancies (in his dolt-hood) that he knows what good and bad should mean--is registered as the zero of our world, a cipher worth nothing but uninterrupted contempt. (Benjamin DeMott, "The New Irony: Sidesnicks and Others,"  The American Scholar , 31, 1961-1962)
• Swift, Simpson, Seinfeld . . . and Quotation Marks [T]echnically, irony is a rhetorical device used to convey a meaning sharply different from or even opposite of the  literal  text. It’s not just saying one thing while meaning another--that’s what Bill Clinton does. No, it’s more like a wink or running joke among people in the know. Jonathan Swift’s  "A Modest Proposal"  is a classic text in the history of irony. Swift argued that English lords should eat the children of the poor to alleviate hunger. There is nothing in the text which says, "hey, this is sarcasm." Swift lays out a pretty good argument and it’s up to the reader to figure it out that he’s not really serious. When Homer Simpson says to Marge, "Now who’s being naïve?" the writers are winking at all those people who love  The Godfather  (these people are commonly referred to as "men"). When George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld keep saying "Not that there’s anything wrong with that!" every time they mention homosexuality, they are making an ironic joke about the culture’s insistence that we affirm our non-judgmentalism. Anyway, irony is one of those words that most people understand intuitively but have a hard time defining. One good test is if you like to put "quotation marks" around words that shouldn’t have them. The "quotation marks" are "necessary" because the words have lost most of their literal "meaning" to the new politicized interpretations. (Jonah Goldberg, "The Irony of Irony."  National Review Online , April 28, 1999)
• Irony and Ethos Specifically rhetorical irony presents few problems. Puttenham's "drie mock" pretty well describes the phenomenon. One kind of rhetorical irony, however, may need further attention. There can be relatively few rhetorical situations where the target of persuasion is utterly ignorant of the designs someone has on him--the relationship of persuader and persuaded is almost always self-conscious to some degree. If the persuader wants to overcome any implicit sales resistance (especially from a sophisticated audience), one of the ways he will do it is to acknowledge that he  is  trying to talk his audience into something. By this, he hopes to gain their trust for as long as the soft sell takes. When he does this, he really acknowledges that his rhetorical maneuvering is ironical, that it says one thing while it tries to do another. At the same time, a second irony is present, since the pitchman is still far from laying all his cards on the table. The point to be made is that every rhetorical posture except the most naive involves an ironical coloration, of some kind or another, of the speaker's  ethos . (Richard Lanham,  A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms , 2nd edition, University of California Press, 1991)
• The End of the Age of Irony? One good thing could come from this horror: it could spell the end of the age of irony. For some 30 years--roughly as long as the Twin Towers were upright--the good folks in charge of America's intellectual life have insisted that nothing was to be believed in or taken seriously. Nothing was real. With a giggle and a smirk, our chattering classes--our columnists and pop culture makers--declared that detachment and personal whimsy were the necessary tools for an oh-so-cool life. Who but a slobbering bumpkin would think, "I feel your pain"? The ironists, seeing through everything, made it difficult for anyone to see anything. The consequence of thinking that nothing is real--apart from prancing around in an air of vain stupidity--is that one will not know the difference between a joke and a menace. No more. The planes that plowed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were real. The flames, smoke, sirens--real. The chalky landscape, the silence of the streets--all real. I feel your pain--really. (Roger Rosenblatt,  "The Age Of Irony Comes to an End,"   Time  magazine, September 16, 2001)
• Eight Misconceptions About Irony We have a grave problem with this word (well, in fact, it's not really grave--but I'm not being ironic when I call it that, I'm being  hyperbolic . Though often the two amount to the same thing. But not always). Just looking at the definitions, the confusion is understandable--in the first instance, rhetorical irony expands to cover any disjunction at all between language and meaning, with a couple of key exceptions ( allegory  also entails a disconnection between sign and meaning, but obviously isn't synonymous with irony; and lying, clearly, leaves that gap, but relies for its efficacy on an ignorant audience, where irony relies on a knowing one). Still, even with the riders, it's quite an umbrella, no? In the second instance,  situational irony  (also known as cosmic irony) occurs when it seems that "God or fate is manipulating events so as to inspire false hopes, which are inevitably dashed" (1). While this looks like the more straightforward usage, it opens the door to confusion between irony, bad luck and inconvenience. Most pressingly, though, there are a number of misconceptions about irony that are peculiar to recent times. The first is that September 11 spelled the end of irony. The second is that the end of irony would be the one good thing to come out of September 11. The third is that irony characterizes our age to a greater degree than it has done any other. The fourth is that Americans can't do irony, and we [the British] can. The fifth is that the Germans can't do irony, either (and we still can). The sixth is that irony and cynicism are interchangeable. The seventh is that it's a mistake to attempt irony in emails and text messages, even while irony characterizes our age, and so do emails. And the eighth is that "post-ironic" is an acceptable term--it is very modish to use this, as if to suggest one of three things: i) that irony has ended; ii) that postmodernism and irony are interchangeable, and can be conflated into one handy word; or iii) that we are more ironic than we used to be, and therefore need to add a prefix suggesting even greater ironic distance than irony on its own can supply. None of these things is true. 1. Jack Lynch, Literary Terms. I would strongly urge you not to read any more footnotes, they are only here to make sure I don't get in trouble for plagiarizing. (Zoe Williams,  "The Final Irony,"   The Guardian , June 28, 2003)
• Postmodern Irony Postmodern irony is allusive, multilayered, preemptive, cynical, and above all, nihilistic. It assumes that everything is subjective and nothing means what it says. It's a sneering, world-weary,  bad  irony, a mentality that condemns before it can be condemned, preferring cleverness to sincerity and quotation to originality. Postmodern irony rejects tradition, but offers nothing in its place. (Jon Winokur,  The Big Book of Irony , St. Martin's Press, 2007)
• We're All in This Together--by Ourselves Importantly, the Romantic of today finds a real connection, a sense of groundedness, with others  through  irony. with those who understand what is meant without having to say it, with those who also question the saccharine quality of contemporary American culture, who are certain that all diatribes of virtue-lament will turn out to have been made by some gambling, lying, hypocritical talk-show host/senator overly fond of interns/pages. This they see as doing an injustice to the depth of human possibility and the complexity and goodness of human feeling, to the power of the imagination over all forms of potential constraint, to a basic ethics that they themselves are proud to uphold. But ironists, above all else, are certain that we must live in this world as best we can, "whether or not it suits our own moral outlook," writes Charles Taylor [ The Ethics of Authenticity , Harvard University Press, 1991]. "The only alternative seems to be a kind of inner exile." Ironic detachment is exactly this sort of inner exile--an  inner emigration --maintained with humor, chic bitterness, and a sometimes embarrassing but abidingly persistent hope. (R. Jay Magill Jr.,  Chic Ironic Bitterness , The University of Michigan Press, 2007)
• What's Ironic? Woman: I started riding these trains in the forties. Those days a man would give up their seat for a woman. Now we're liberated and we have to stand. Elaine: It's ironic. Woman: What's ironic? Elaine: This, that we've come all this way, we have made all this progress, but you know, we've lost the little things, the niceties. Woman: No, I mean what does "ironic" mean? ( Seinfeld )
• Figure of Speech: Definition and Examples
• Verbal Irony - Definition and Examples
• Definition and Examples of Irony (Figure of Speech)
• Definition and Examples of Sarcasm
• Profile of Socrates
• Socratic Irony
• What Is Rhetoric?
• Socratic Dialogue (Argumentation)
• Definition and Examples of Apophasis in Rhetoric
• Paralepsis (Rhetoric)
• Elenchus (argumentation)
• Summary and Analysis of Meno by Plato
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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, understanding the 3 types of irony.

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Irony is one of the great forces of language and literature. Irony calls on us to use our wit and instinctual understanding of right and wrong, and often requires that we see humor where there is none. Some say that irony is as old as literature itself, and they may be right— in the human condition, we have always sought to find meaning in paradoxes. Since irony is so ubiquitous, it’s important to understand the different types of irony, and how or when they’re used. You'll be able to identify the different types, and call out the right and wrong ways to use them.

What Is Irony?

In short, irony is a literary or rhetorical device that states or shows the opposite of what is actually true for humorous or emphatic effect. Irony states to contrary to what is meant, but in a way that still makes the actual meaning understood.

Many people use sarcasm in their everyday interactions, which is one form of verbal irony. For example, when discussing an upcoming dentist appointment, you might say in an overly excited voice, “I can’t wait!” This is one type of irony (we’ll get to the types soon!) and shows that irony is deeply ingrained into the way we communicate.

If you’re not a naturally ironic person, you may be wondering why writers use irony in novels. Wouldn’t it just make more sense to say what they mean? While you’re not wrong, using all types of irony can help create suspense, invoke particular emotions, or inform our opinion of a character and their motivations . When we discuss the types of irony, we’ll go more in depth as to how and why a writer might use irony, and what they hope to achieve.

The 3 Types of Irony

Situational irony.

Situational irony is when the outcome of a situation is different than our expectations. Situational irony can be used to create drama, to drive home to realities of a tragedy, or to create humor. You'll find situational irony often in books and plays, as well as movies and TV. This type of irony helps us and the character make sense of their reality, and weaves together humor and tragedy.

Here are some examples of situational irony

General: A friend posts on social media about how social media is killing society and we all need to interact in person

Humor: A thief on the run gets into a getaway car but it's out of gas

Tragic: In Guy de Maupassant's short story The Necklace , Mathilda borrows a necklace from a wealthy friend and loses it. She and her husband go into crippling debt and wind up in poverty to replace the necklace, only to find out years later that the original necklace was a fake to begin with.

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony is a device employed by storytellers wherein the audience is aware of what’s going on, but the characters are not . Dramatic irony includes three phases: Installation , when the audience is informed of something the character does not know. Exploitation , using the information to develop curiosity and an emotional response from the audience. Resolution , what happens after the character finds out the information.

Romeo and Juliet's death scene is a great example of dramatic irony. We the audience/reader know that Juliet is drugged to fake her own death, but Romeo does not. So, we watch Romeo commit suicide, knowing that Juliet is alive, and that he too would know the truth if he'd waited. In this example, the installation is earlier in the play, when we learn of Juliet's plan, aware that Romeo does not know. Exploitation is when we watch their death scenes unfold. And the resolution is the end of the play, when the families find out what happened and finally end their feud. 

Another well-known example is the story of Oedipus Rex. Dramatic irony was first invented for us in Greek dramas. So while most of us modern readers know the story mainly through the play, ancient Greek play-goers would have been well-informed on the story of Oedipus before going into the play. The Greek audience was able to watch the story unfold with this knowledge already in mind, even though the main character, Oedipus, is unaware. This creates dramatic tension throughout the story and adds a new emotional layer to this classic myth.

Verbal Irony

As we discussed, verbal irony is an important tool in speech. Verbal irony is also an important tool in writing. Verbal irony occurs when a person of character says one thing but means another .

I mentioned above that sarcasm is one form of verbal irony. But remember, the definitions of sarcasm and verbal irony are not interchangeable, and sarcasm is only one form of verbal irony. Sarcasm is generally a little harsher than overall verbal irony, and verbal irony can also include double entendre, over- or under-exaggeration, and rhetorical questions .

Writers may use verbal irony to prove a point, or to help us better understand a situation or character. If a character uses verbal irony, that irony may be in reference to the plot, but also may be in reference to the character's own emotions . Verbal irony, can give us insight into a character’s true state, and challenge us to look deeper into that character’s motivations.

Verbal irony can also be used in a more general sense to bring humor to the novel, play, movie, etc. Verbal irony also helps us develop analytical skills, since it requires us as readers to pay attention to the nuances of dialogue and language .

Satire is one example of verbal irony that carries throughout an entire text.

There are actually quite a few instances of verbal irony in the Harry Potter series. In The Order of the Phoenix , Aunt Petunia asks Harry why he keeps watching the news. He replies, “Well, it changes every day, you see.” Though Harry is offering a truthful response on the surface, as readers we can tell that his answer is contemptuous, and his meaning (to point out how silly Aunt Petunia’s inquiry is) contradicts with the actual words he speaks. If read in the right tone, this conversation definitely will at least get a giggle.

As we discussed, over exaggeration is one form of verbal irony we also use commonly. If someone laughs at a joke and says “I laughed so hard I almost exploded!” This is over exaggeration and one form of verbal irony, since clearly, the person didn’t almost explode from laughter, and the statement contradicts with reality.

How to Tell the Different Types of Irony Apart

Remember, writers use irony to make a point about the distinction between appearance and reality. Usually, use of irony is also meant to drive home a point about the theme or symbolism. To gain a full understanding of the text and the purpose of using irony, you have to know the type of irony being used.

Identifying Situational Irony

Situational irony can be a little harder to identify. Chances are, you've read or witnessed situational irony and had a reaction without thinking to yourself, "hey, this is situational irony." Situational irony can be funny, sad, or everything in between. Here are some important questions to ask yourself:

Does the outcome of the situation differ from your expectations?

Are both you and characters aware that the outcome is different than the expectations?

Does the difference in expectations versus reality elicit a funny, tragic, or otherwise emotional response?

The famous car sing-along song, Ironic by Alanis Morissette, is filled with situational irony; we know it's situational because each lyric explains an event, and an outcome that differs from our expectations. It is not verbal because no one is speaking, and not dramatic because the audience i.e. the listener, knows the same amount of information as the "characters" in the song. The lyric "He won the lottery and died the next day," for example clearly is a case of situational irony.

Identifying Dramatic Irony

The most important element of dramatic irony is that the audience knows something that the characters do not. Because we're usually aware as an audience what the characters do or do not know, dramatic irony should be relatively easy to identify.

When identifying dramatic irony, we have to ask ourselves: does it follow the trajectory of dramatic irony: Installation, exploitation, and resolution? Does the gap in knowledge between the audience and the characters increase or create tension? If the answer is yes, you're probably looking at dramatic irony.

Identifying Verbal Irony

One key part of verbal irony is that it is spoken out loud by a character. Since we use verbal irony so often in our speech, this type of irony may be immediately clear to you. However, nuances of speech are much harder to get across on paper, so you can ask yourself a few questions to help figure out the context, and confirm whether or not verbal irony is being used.

Read the scene carefully. Remember that verbal irony can have many tones! It can be playful, contemptuous, snarky, etc. So if you think characters are using verbal irony, you can ask yourself the following:

What else is going on in the scene? Is there a reason a character would be utilizing verbal irony? Do they have a point to prove?

What is the relationship between the character speaking and the character(s) being spoken to? Would the speaking character need to use verbal irony to get a point across?

Now that you've mastered irony in all its forms, take care not to overuse it. Ironically, irony can often be overused and overwrought. But definitely do use these tips to identify all three types of irony to better understand your test questions or reading materials. Authors employ all types of irony in their work, and it's an important part of finding meaning in books as well as in everyday life.

What's Next?

Irony isn't the only thing you need to know. Check out the 31 Literary Devices You Must Know and expand your knowledge of the Most Useful Rhetorical Devices while you're at it.

Getting ready for your AP tests? Make sure to check out our Expert Guides to the AP Literature and the AP Language and Composition tests.

Carrie holds a Bachelors in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, and is currently pursuing an MFA. She worked in book publishing for several years, and believes that books can open up new worlds. She loves reading, the outdoors, and learning about new things.

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Irony – Definition, Meaning And Examples

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In rhetoric, the concept of irony represents one of the most intriguing, but often misunderstood, stylistic devices . Employed in a statement, it is typically shown as a twist against its literal meaning, expressing the opposite or a different meaning essentially. In accordance, one might wonder how this concept may fit within the evidence-based and structured foundation of academic writing . This article delves into the use of irony in academia without compromising the clarity and integrity.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 Irony in a nutshell
• 2 Definition of irony
• 3 Ironic statements in academic writing
• 4 Dramatic irony
• 5 Situational irony
• 6 Verbal irony
• 7 Using irony
• 8 Misusing irony

Irony in a nutshell

In essence, the concept of irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. In academic writing, it typically reinforces a contrast between reality and appearance, or an expectation and a lackluster outcome. In other words, it usually pinpoints and emphasizes an inconsistency or a point.

Definition of irony

In the realm of academic writing, classical irony is a type of rhetorical device , also called a figure of speech or stylistic device . Essentially, a general definition of it is that it conveys the opposite meaning of the literal statement. Henry Watson Fowler, a renowned English grammarian and lexicographer, accounts for a variety of forms of irony, highlighting its nature as a rhetorical device. According to him, it is typically used to reinforce a point or to accentuate a disparity of intention between a statement and meaning, or predictions and results. Additionally, Fowler makes a clear distinction between ironic and sarcastic statements and puts focus on the common misuse of it in general. Therefore, it is crucial to employ this concept thoughtfully to prevent misunderstandings and ensure clarity. Apart from academia, ironic context is often used for criticism, emphasis, or humor and can take on various forms such as dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony .

Examples of irony

The following statement refers to a failed public health campaign event.

The campaign, aspiringly called “The Health Revolution,” had all the equipment for success – apart from, ironically, any noteworthy improvement in public health.

This is an ironic statement, as it contrasts the aspiring title of the campaign with its uninspiring outcome of events, emphasizing the failure of the campaign.

The origins of irony are in the ancient Greek word “eirōneía,” meaning “feigned ignorance” or “dissimulation.” The conception of irony originated from a character in Greek comedy named “eirōn” who dissembles ignorance with the aim to deceive, exposing someone else’s hypocrisy or ignorance as a result. This concept is now applied to general situations, where there is a notable gap between expectations and the outcome of events.

There are some words that represent synonyms for irony, as they capture various characteristics in terms of its sarcastic and humorous undertones and contradictions of unexpected results. Terms that depict a synonym for irony are listed in the following:

• Contradition
• Incongruity
• Sardonicism

Ironic statements in academic writing

When we speak of ironic context in an academia, it’s primarily applied in its literary and rhetorical aspects. Therefore, it is noteworthy that ironic statements should not be included in academic writing unless they are drawn from relevant scientific sources or the content itself. The following illustrates an overview of ironic context used in scholarly debates and discussions. These types reflect on nuanced ways in which irony is applied in fields such as philosophy, history, and literature, and will be elaborated on in this article.

• Cosmic irony: Revolves around the belief that destiny, fate, or a god-like superior power is in control and deliberately plays around with the hopes and expectations of humans.
• Dramatic irony: Refers to a literary device where the audience is aware of facts and situations, while the characters are left in the unknown.
• Historical irony: Emphasizes sharp and significant contrasts between historical and present events, pointing out definite changes in circumstances and values.
• Metafiction: Represents a stylistic device of postmodernism with the distinct characteristic of generally distrusting concepts, theories, and any ideas of “reality.”
• Romantic irony: Refers to the method or technique of the narrative constantly reminding the reader of the literary state of the work or the artificiality.
• Situational irony: Depicts scenarios in which the actual outcome of an occurence turns out to be completely different than what was initially expected.
• Socratic irony: A technique that Socrates implemented by pretending to be clueless or ignorant to expose contradictions or weaknesses in someone’s argument.
• Verbal irony: The deliberate way of stating something that is the opposite of what is meant, typically used to emphasize something or cobvey humor.

Dramatic irony

Often used in films, plays, and literature, dramatic irony is a stylistic device where the audience has more information about a situation than the actual characters. This often creates a certain humorous tension due to the contrast between the audience’s knowledge and the characters’ reality. The underlying purpose is to enrich the emotional effect and enhance the narrative experience.

Dramatic irony example

William Shakespeare’s most famous play, “Romeo and Juliet,” entails a perfect example of dramatic irony.

The character Romeo is unaware that Juliet has taken a potion to merely appear dead after being banished from Verona. With the perception and belief that Juliet is truly dead, Romeo takes his life out of grief. Thereafter, Juliet awakens and finds Romeo dead beside her and also kills herself.

In this example, the emotional intensity is enhanced, as the audience has been aware of Juliet’s plan to take the potion to merely appear dead all along, thus, understanding the tragic mistake long before the characters do.

Tragic irony

Tragic irony refers to a subtype of dramatic irony, and thus, they are often used interchangeably. As the name says, it refers to a form of dramatic ironic context found in tragedies. In these scenarios involving tragic irony, the audience is specifically aware of a tragedy that is about to happen, while the characters remain clueless. This creates a suspenseful intensity for the audience, as they await the impending doom of the characters.

In the famous play “Oedipus Rex,” the King of Thebes, aspires to unravel the murder of the previous king to end a plague that’s afflicting his city. In his determination, he swears to punish the murderer when he is found. Little does he know that he is the murderer, as he has unknowingly killed his father in a prior encounter. On top of this, he also married his mother, Jocasta, neither of them knowing their true relationship.

In this scenario, the audience is aware of the true identity of Oedipus and the prophecy. Thus, they watch him unwittingly condemn himself, seeking the murderer who is, in fact, himself. When the truth comes to light, it causes a tragedy for Oedipus and his family, highlighting the tragic irony of his situation.

Situational irony

Situational irony is found in situations where the expected results do not align with the actual events. It happens when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to occur and what transpires in reality, oftentimes ending in unexpected results that are thought-provoking or humorous. In other words, when an effect of actions turns out to be the opposite of what was initially anticipated.

Situational irony example

The following short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry provides an accurate example.

A young couple, Della and Jim, can’t afford Christmas gifts for each other. Della desperately sells her long, beautiful hair to a wig-maker to buy Jim a platinum fob chain for his beloved pocket watch. Unknowingly of this, Jim sells his prized pocket watch to buy ornate hair combs for Della, as she has wished for them for a long time.

The situational irony comes to light when they exchange gifts on Christmas. They have each made their gift pointless by selling their cherished items necessary for their gifts to each other. Essentially, their actions caused the opposite effect of their intentions, resulting in an unexpected outcome.

Types of situational ironic context

The following accounts for subtypes of situational ironic context and where they commonly occur.

Cosmic irony

Historical irony.

Cosmic irony , also called irony of fate , describes the idea that fate, gods, or the universe manipulate the destiny of humans’ hopes and expectations maliciously. It refers to characters believing they are controlling their fate, but learning they are wrong due to external higher powers. Cosmic irony usually emphasizes that life can’t be foreseen and that fate can’t be altered or controlled, visualizing the contrast between human anticipation and the higher, inevitable, and cruel design of the cosmos. The Greek myth of King Sisyphus illustrates a perfect example of cosmic irony.

King Sisyphus was notorious for his deceiving nature, as he cheated death twice, fooling the gods of the underworld. Accordingly, the gods created a unique eternal torture for him as a punishment for his fraud and audacity against them. Sisyphus was doomed to push a heavy boulder up a steep hill repeatedly, as it rolled back down right before he reached the top. This cycle was never-ending.

Sisyphus’ belief that he cheated the gods and was controlling his fate, but actually being subjected to an endless and pointless task as a punishment by the gods, shows a cruel lesson. Essentially, he is not only tortured physically but also in the psychological torment of never reaching his goal, no matter how often or hard he approaches the task. This emphasizes a cruel lesson that humans cannot escape their fate.

When a situation in history has an inappropriate outcome or the opposite of what was expected, we speak of historical irony . This type of irony occurs when we reminisce about past situations with the realization that the beliefs, expectations, or intentions of people back then do not align with the eventual or perceived outcomes in retrospection. It can often be depicted in the unexpected consequences of specific actions, the evolution of societal values, and advancements in technology. The Maginot Line in France tells the perfect tale for an example of historical irony.

Built by the French before World War II, the Maginot Line refers to a range of reinforcements, weapons, and obstacles installed along the border between France and Germany. This expensive and large-scale line of defense was created to prevent a direct invasion by the Germans by urging all offensive forces to move around it, making more time for France to call up their military.

Although the Margot Line was a technologically advanced defensive barrier, forcing the Germans to go around it, it ultimately allowed the German forces to navigate through the Ardennes Forest, which was considered a natural defense structure and therefore barely reinforced. This becomes ironic as the very defense plan that France relied on, essentially, paved the way for the German invasion and resulted in rapid defeat.

Verbal irony

Verbal irony is employed in speech where someone states one thing but means the opposite. This is typically used to convey a certain attitude or message that contradicts the initial literal statement. In scenarios involving verbal irony, the listener is mostly aware of the inconsistency between the said words and the intended meaning, setting a humorous or critical tone. Ultimately, verbal irony clearly differentiates between what is stated and what is actually meant.

Verbal irony example

A verbal irony example can be identified in a setting and a contradicting statement, as in the following.

Imagine this scenario:

Someone leaves the house, and it is raining and gray outside. The person remarks: “What a wonderful day!”

Based on the setting, it is clear that the person does not refer to the weather as wonderful, as this describes the complete opposite. The speaker employed verbal irony to emphasize how bad the weather is. The ironic intent behind it, is also clear, as the setting and the statement do not coincide.

Types of verbal ironic context

The subsequent discourse outlines the most frequently occurring forms of verbal ironic context.

Echoic allusion

Sarcasm refers to a type of verbal irony, where insincere or mocking language is employed to express disregard, mockery, or contempt. The tone is often biting, cutting, or sharp with the deliberate intention to convey scorn toward the listener. While sarcasm is typically ironic, irony isn’t always sarcastic. Sarcasm has a more specific intent, which goes in the direction of taunting or purposefully hurting someone in a malicious or humorous way. The following outlines a simple example of sarcasm.

A coworker arrives late to a meeting. The boss remarks: “Nice of you to join us!”

In this case, of verbal irony, the boss is not genuinely praising the employee for attending the meeting, but rather makes a sarcastic remark to scornfully emphasize the person’s late arrival. While superficially, this statement would be welcoming, on a deeper level, it is actually a critique of the person’s tardiness.

An echoic allusion is a rhetorical device and also a form of verbal irony. It involves the writer making a reference to or reflecting back on a previous word, sentence, or phrase, usually, from a widely known event or text. It can be referred to as a form of intertextuality, as one text resonates with another. This type of allusion aims to evoke the emotions or atmosphere associated with the original source by echoing it. This enables the writer to express meanings between the lines without stating them directly. When using echoic allusion, the writer has the belief that the audience has knowledge of the original source, which creates a mutual understanding or cultural link. T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” illustrates a famous example of echoic allusion.

In the poem, Eliot writes the line “April is the cruelest month,” which depicts an echoic allusion to the introducing line of “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer that states, “Whan that April with his showers soote.”

While Chaucer gives the April month a positive connotation by celebrating growth and rejuvenation, Eliot’s echoic allusion to it portrays the contrary modern version, implying that April interferes with the natural flow of winter. As Eliot echoes Chaucer’s line, it is apparent that he assumes the audience is familiar with “The Canterbury Tales.”

Using irony

While logic, clarity, and evidence portray key aspects in the realm of academic writing, it may be difficult to see ironic statements as complementing companions. Irony can offer an effective way to convey and emphasize contradictions, challenge traditional norms, or provide a more profound meaning to an argument. When used appropriately and with precision, irony can elevate an academic paper by presenting deliberate intention or even elaborating critique. There are various ways to use irony, which are delved into in the following.

Comic irony

Metafiction & romantic irony, socratic irony, negative irony, awkwardness.

Using comic irony includes giving expectations of an event or situation and adding an unexpected twist with the aim of creating a comedic or humorous effect. In essence, it occurs when an absurd or unexpected result of something makes you laugh. This is how it can be used:

• Build up expectations: Construct a specific setting for the audience that gives them certain expectations of the outcome of a situation or events.
• Add a twist: Introduce something that strongly contradicts the expectations of the outcome, establishing a punchline or a twist in the argument.
• Keep clarity: Maintain the irony and clarity for the audience. A weak or subtle presence of the ironic twist may diminish the comedic effect.
• Thoughtful timing: Perfect timing plays a key role in comedy. Set the ironic twist as soon as possible after the establishment of the expectations for a stronger effect.
• Adjust to your audience: Make sure you know your audience. Humor varies immensely, tailor your comic irony to the target group you are confronted with.

Consider the following example for a better comprehension of comic irony.

The setting:

A character, known for being late, hosts an event surrounding the importance of being punctual.

Twist of expectation:

The guests arrive, only to wait for the host, who arrives in a rush and short of breath, excusing his delay with a forgotten alarm clock.

In this scenario, the irony is comic or humorous, as the host urges punctuality through the event and contradicts himself by being late.

Metafiction and romantic irony are closely related and anticipate to highlight the constructed nature of a narrative. However, these two concepts have slight distinctions, which become apparent below.

When a writer uses metafiction , they remind the audience that what they read is fictional and doesn’t represent an unmediated part of reality. Essentially, metafiction is a form of fiction that assertively addresses and uncovers the construction behind the story. Employing metafiction can be done in three ways as accounted for in the following:

• The narrator or characters can directly acknowledge that they are part of a fictional story, e.g., “If this were a novel, I’d be dead.”
• The narrative can be disrupted by commentary based on the author’s revisions, direct addresses to the reader, or simply notes.
• Blur the lines by mixing real-life and fictional elements, e.g., integrating real photos, footnotes, or documents in the fictional narrative.

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” depicts a clear example of employing metafiction by blurring the lines, as follows.

Vonnegut places himself as a character in the story to blur the lines between the fictional story and the real author. He also incorporates obvious moments with the characters, where the fiction of the story is overtly played with or debated.

On the other hand, romantic irony or self-irony refers to the self-awareness of the author, meaning their subjective position in constructing a narrative. This type of irony describes how an author is completely involved in the process of creation, whilst also able to critique or mock it. Among others, romantic irony can be employed in the following three ways:

• The author is fully immersed in the narrative, however, detached to a certain level to offer commentary at the same time.
• Disrupting the narrative by fragments of various voices, plots, or views to convey the point that multiple truths are possible.
• The author may integrate playful critique by praising a scene and then mocking it or downplaying its importance in the next breath.

The German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schlegel often employed romantic irony and set clear examples for it in his way of argumentation and conceptualizing.

Often, Schlegel presented a well-grounded philosophical concept and then mocked it in the next breath by degrading its validity and underscoring the subjective nature of a philosophical endeavor.

In essence, the most prominent distinction between metafiction and romantic irony is the balance between engagement and detachment.

Derived from Socrates in Platonic dialogues, Socratic irony revolves around pretending to be clueless about a dissembled belief in an opponent’s argument to expose the flaws in their claim. Socrates often positioned himself in the role of the clueless one, inquiring for clarification of a topic that he was already knowledgeable of. In the quest of seeking clarity, he tailored the questions in a way to make the opponent realize their contradictions regarding their beliefs, ultimately, providing a deeper understanding and insight into philosophical truths. Overall, it can be employed as a pedagogical method to guide someone to acknowledge inadequacies on their own by questioning them.

Using Socratic irony is an effective way to navigate discussions, amplify critical thinking , and enlighten people about the flaws in their arguments. There are several ways to employ this type properly:

• Pretending to be clueless: Ask questions about a topic you are already familiar with. This creates a safe environment for others to share their opinions.
• Open-ended questions: Formulate questions in a way that promotes elaboration, like “How did you draw this conclusion?” or “Can you elaborate?”
• Request clarity: This may urge people to reflect on their argument, e.g., if someone states, “All athletes are cheaters,” ask, “Do you think there is not one honest athlete?”
• Subtly emphasize contradictions: Encourage self-recognition by asking questions instead of directly confronting a contradiction made in an argument.
• Stay humble in your tone: Remember that it isn’t about being right in an argument, but rather about navigating the person toward a self-realization of contradictions.
• Be mindful of the timing to conclude: The process of drawing a conclusion varies for every person. Thus, wrapping up a discussion effectively may involve leaving the person with food for thought.

The following example displays this Socratic approach in a modern context.

Modern scenario:

In a discussion about climate change, the opponent expresses skepticism towards the contribution of humans.

Questions rather than stating data:

• Can you account for the aspects that you believe contribute most to climate change?
• How can you reunite the vast agreement among climate scientists?
• Are there particular sources you derived your opinion from?

The example above illustrates open-ended questions that can help in guiding the discussion. In addition, these questions encourage the opponent to employ critical thinking and reevaluate their viewpoint on their own, possibly, acknowledging any gaps in their argument.

Negative irony acts as the counterpart of humorous or neutral irony. Its purpose lies in conveying critique, contempt, or a negative connotation through arguments that express the contrary to what is actually meant. This form of irony is often found in literature, everyday dialogue, or rhetoric, referring to contradictions or errors in a topic. Negative irony can be used in several ways:

• Provide a clear context: In order to avoid confusion and convey a point effectively, it is crucial to provide a clear context for an ironic statement.
• Setting the right tone: In terms of negative irony or sarcasm, it may be effective to use a disdainful or mocking tone to make the irony clear.
• Emphasize contradictions: Negative irony should directly point out inconsistencies in actions, situations, or beliefs. This is frequently done by placing the statement and intent side by side.
• Keep it short: Brief ironic statements can oftentimes be more effective than extensive ones, as they will keep the focus to the point.
• Use it appropriately: Make sure you employ negative irony in the right context and not excessively. Using it too often may come off as not serious or too cynical.
• Expect strong reactions: It is essential to remember that you may receive strong feedback when using negative irony, as it is often provocative.

A manufacturing company received backlash for unsustainable issues and as a result, implemented a minor green campaign, selling it as an impactful step towards sustainability.

Negative irony:

“Wow, how impressive! One tree is planted for every thousand products manufactured. The world is saved.”

Despite the company’s trying, the statement above clearly conveys criticism towards it, indicating the efforts are too minimal, especially, in terms of its prior backlash.

Using awkwardness in terms of irony revolves around creating an uncomfortable setting or drawing attention to unpleasant situations so that the audience is forced to acknowledge the breach between expectations and actual results. By reinforcing emotional reactions, awkwardness can bring irony more to the foreground, making it more tangible to the crowd. Awkwardness can be employed in many ways to intensify irony:

• Create unexpected settings: Awkwardness typically occurs when a situation is inappropriate or unexpected. Therefore, contrasting normality with something unexpected in a setting may be effective.
• Be aware of the dynamic between characters: If the character is clueless about certain information, but the audience is familiar with it, it may create an ironic and awkward situation.
• Playful timing: Be suspenseful with answers and responses, which can create an awkward silence between scenes and intensify the irony.
• Add a twist to social norms: We are taught by social conventions what is normal and what is out of line. Creating scenarios that go against the norm may lead to awkwardness.
• Restrict what is said: Often, silence can be much more awkward than spoken words. Be calculated with pauses, body language, and the setting.
• Point out gaps: Make sure to emphasize the breach between expectations and reality. The more the breach comes to the foreground, the more awkward the situation will be.

Misusing irony

To identify and prevent the misuse of common irony is vital, as it often leads to miscommunication, confusion, or even unintended offense. The most frequently made mistakes in using common irony are outlined below.

• Too subtle: Despite subtlety being a crucial part of conveying ironic meanings properly, it still has to be noticeable to the audience. If it is employed too subtly, it can create confusion.
• Overuse: Overusing ironic statements can come off as insincere or elusive. It makes it more difficult for the audience to differentiate between genuine sentiment and irony.
• Inappropriate setting: Be careful about using ironic statements in sensitive or serious contexts, as it can quickly become dismissive of the sensitivity or disrespect towards a certain topic.
• Cultural misconceptions: Not all cultures have the same understanding and employment of irony, meaning that while one culture uses ironic context one way, another could perceive it as deceptive or confusing.
• Irony vs. sarcasm: Sarcasm is often confused with irony, which often results in unintentional offense. Sarcasm is a subtype of verbal irony, however, not all ironic statements can refer to sarcasm.
• Language barriers: When translating ironic statements to other languages, the nuances may get lost, resulting in misunderstandings or confusion.
• Digital communication: In text messages, the tone is missing in the communication, which can frequently lead to confusion or even unintended offense when employing irony.

Based on the points accounting for common misuse of ironic statements, the following repercussions may be most likely to occur.

• Dismissing the seriousness of a situation
• Loss of credibility by seeming insincere
• Miscommunication and confusion
• Unintentional offense

What is an example of irony?

Essentially, ironic expressions describe arguments that have a clear literal meaning but mean the opposite or something else.

For example, if it is a gloomy and rainy day, you might say “What amazing weather!”

Here, the exaggerated remark as a response to the bad weather conveys the opposite.

What are simple definitions for irony?

Ironic statements can be employed in literature and in everyday life. A simple definition of irony is that it refers to a gap between our expectations and the reality of an outcome, or whenever a person says or does something that doesn’t align with our expectations, an ironic expression occurs.

What does irony in literature mean?

Irony refers to a stylistic device, more specifically, a literary device. In a literary context, it refers to the difference between what something seems to mean in contrast to its literal meaning, ultimately, pointing out a disparity of intention.

How do you identify irony?

To detect irony, it is crucial to analyze whether the character making a statement, conflicts with the setting on purpose or unintentionally.

For example, if the character intentionally uses a mocking style in tone, it may indicate sarcasm, a subcategory of verbal irony. However, if the intent behind the statement is genuine, it may imply situational irony.

Why is it called irony?

The word “irony” originates from the Greek comic character Erion. He describes a character who, with his intellect, continuously wins against the pretentious character Alazon.

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Verbal Irony

Definition of verbal irony.

Verbal irony occurs when a speaker speaks something contradictory to what he intends to say. It is an intentional product of the speaker and is contradictory to his/her emotions and actions. To define it simply, it occurs when a character uses a statement with underlying meanings that contrast with its literal meaning; it shows that the writer has used verbal irony. Writers rely on the audience ’s intelligence for discerning the hidden meanings they intend to convey. Writers also use ironic similes to convey exactly the opposite of what they intend to say, such as “soft as concrete.”

Types of Verbal Irony

There are four major types of verbal ironies as follows.

• Sarcasm : It intends to mock or ridicule or express contempt.
• Stable and Unstable Irony: Stable ironic remarks are clear, while unstable is, somewhat, ambiguous.
• Hyperbolic statement or Exaggeration and Understatement : Overstatement is an exaggeration, while understatement is belittling of something or the quality of some person.
• Socratic type of Ironic Remarks: It means to pretend ignorance to retrieve more knowledge from others.

Difference between Verbal Irony and Sarcasm

As verbal irony is contrary to what is being said, it may or may not have a mocking tone . However, in sarcasm , it is intended to criticize in the case which it may backfire. The reason is that it is often used to mock or ridicule or express hatred, while verbal irony may not intend to do it. Sarcasm is considered to be crude, while verbal irony is subtle.

Stable Vs. Unstable Irony

Stable irony uses sentences and phrases that are clear to the audience, but unstable is marked with ambiguity or ambivalence. The readers and audiences do not find it easy to understand the underlying irony in case of unstable ironic remarks. Otherwise, both are common in that both are types of verbal irony, or both use words to ironize some person, quality, or thing.

Using Overstatement and Understatement in Verbal Irony

Overstatement shows exaggeration that occurs in hyperbolic statements, an understatement means to stress on the littleness of things than their actual sizes. It could occur in the case of a physical description or even in the qualities of things or situations. It could also be that overstatement is the opposite of what a thing or quality actually is.

Verbal Irony Vs. Socratic Irony Difference

Verbal irony means to use words to show contrary to what actually is said about a situation, person or fact, the Socratic irony is marked with ignorance. A person using Socratic irony pretends to be ignorant of what the situation is. This is the way of showing his dumbness to his opponent to retrieve information or knowledge. It is also called verbal chess where the player does not demonstrate his actual knowledge in order to get more knowledge or extract information.

Examples of Verbal Irony from Literature

Example #1: romeo & juliet by william shakespeare.

“Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: ‘ I am sure they are sour.’ ” “I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris.”

Juliet does not like the decision of her father to marry Paris, whom she dislikes, and instead adores Romeo. Hence, she makes a decision to marry Romeo and tells her mother about it ironically that whenever she would marry, it would be Romeo – whom she dislikes – and not Paris, thus confusing her mother.

Example #2: Pride & Prejudice By Jane Austen

“She is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me.”

We can find many fine examples of verbal irony in Pride and Prejudice . In this example, we relish the ironic flavor of Darcy’s statement, as we later find out that the woman he found unsuitable to dance with, ends up taking a place in his heart.

Example #3: The Unknown Citizen By W. H. Auden

The title of the poem , The Unknown Citizen , employs verbal irony, as the poet describes a person whom everyone knows, yet he is still unknown. Also, by deliberately capitalizing on common words, the speaker makes them sound meaningless, ironic, and sarcastic: “the Greater Community ,” “Social Psychology,” “Union,” “Public Opinion,” and “High-Grade Living.” All of these terms sound formal, pompous, bureaucratic, and arrogant. Simply, through verbal irony, the poet shows how governmental agencies, which should serve human beings, have rather enslaved them.

Example #4: Oedipus Rex By Sophocles

TIRESIAS: “You are all ignorant. I will not reveal the troubling things inside me, which I can call your grief as well.” OEDIPUS: “Do you intend to betray me and destroy the city?”

All types of ironies are prevalent throughout the entire play , Oedipus Rex . One fine example of verbal irony occurs when Tiresias refuses to reveal the prophecy to Oedipus.

In fact, Oedipus has misunderstood Tiresias’ statement, “… which I can call your grief as well.” By this, Tiresias means that, if he reveals the truth, it would become Oedipus’ grief that he is the murderer of his king, Laius. This is a verbal irony in which Oedipus fails to realize that this “grief” is going to be an impending fate for him.

Example #5: A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

“I rather recommend buying the children alive and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.”

Verbal irony is a dominant literary device in this novel by Swift. For instance, in the above statement, the author intends to point out that the government should not treat Irish people like animals . In irony, he compares the Irish to animals.

Example #6: Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography By Lemony Snicket

“Today was a very cold and bitter day, as cold and bitter as a cup of hot chocolate; if the cup of hot chocolate had vinegar added to it and were placed in a refrigerator for several hours.”

Snicket uses verbal irony by employing ironic simile . Then, he proceeds to break down this simile, by overturning its meaning. By making a complex structure, the author creates verbal irony to let readers enjoy it.

Functions of Verbal Irony

Verbal irony is very common in everyday speech, plays, novels, and poetry, and usually occurs in the form of sarcasm. It depends upon timing and suitable circumstances to achieve its effect. Verbal irony develops funny and dramatic situations. Through verbal irony, writers and poets can convey their bitter messages indirectly, in a less bitter and more effective way. It makes a literary piece more effective by provoking readers into analyzing and thinking harder about a situation. By contrasting and comparing suppositions with reality, the readers can better understand the writer’s intent.

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• 10 Examples of Irony in Shakespeare
• 15 Irony Examples in Disney Movies
• 11 Examples of Irony in Children’s Literature
• 12 Thought Provoking Examples of Irony in History
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• Romeo and Juliet Dramatic Irony
• Brevity is the Soul of Wit
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The Use of Irony in Edgar Allan Poe’s Works

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

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Table of contents

Definition of irony, irony in poe’s works, the function of irony in poe’s works, impact of irony on the reader.

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Definition of irony

called also dramatic irony

called also Socratic irony

Did you know?

What's irony ?

Considerable thought is given to what events constitute “true” irony, and the dictionary is often called upon to supply an answer. Here are the facts about how the word irony is used.

Irony has two formal uses that are not as common in general prose as its more casual uses. One refers to Socratic irony—a method of revealing an opponent’s ignorance by pretending to be ignorant yourself and asking probing questions. The other refers to dramatic irony or tragic irony—an incongruity between the situation in a drama and the words used by the characters that only the audience can see. Socratic irony is a tool used in debating; dramatic irony is what happens when the audience realizes that Romeo and Juliet’s plans will go awry.

The third, and debated, use of irony regards what’s called situational irony . Situational irony involves a striking reversal of what is expected or intended: a person sidesteps a pothole to avoid injury and in doing so steps into another pothole and injures themselves. Critics claim the words irony and ironic as they are used in cases lacking a striking reversal, such as “Isn’t it ironic that you called just as I was planning to call you?,” are more properly called coincidence .

The historical record shows that irony and ironic have been used imprecisely for almost 100 years at least, and often to refer to coincidence. This 1939 quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald is typical: "It is an ironic thought that the last picture job I took—against my better judgment—yielded me five thousand dollars five hundred and cost over four thousand in medical attention." Is this true situational irony? It’s debatable.

The word irony has come to be applied to events that are merely curious or coincidental, and while some feel this is an incorrect use of the word, it is merely a new one.

wit , humor , irony , sarcasm , satire , repartee mean a mode of expression intended to arouse amusement.

wit suggests the power to evoke laughter by remarks showing verbal felicity or ingenuity and swift perception especially of the incongruous.

humor implies an ability to perceive the ludicrous, the comical, and the absurd in human life and to express these usually without bitterness.

irony applies to a manner of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is seemingly expressed.

sarcasm applies to expression frequently in the form of irony that is intended to cut or wound.

satire applies to writing that exposes or ridicules conduct, doctrines, or institutions either by direct criticism or more often through irony, parody, or caricature.

repartee implies the power of answering quickly, pointedly, or wittily.

Examples of irony in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'irony.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Latin ironia , from Greek eirōnia , from eirōn dissembler

1502, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Phrases Containing irony

• dramatic irony
• Socratic irony

Articles Related to irony

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Dictionary Entries Near irony

iron yellow

Cite this Entry

“Irony.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony. Accessed 30 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of irony, more from merriam-webster on irony.

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for irony

Nglish: Translation of irony for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of irony for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about irony

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