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Dramatic Irony In Much Ado About Nothing

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Dramatic Irony: How it will change your literary world
Dramatic irony is a literary technique that is most commonly prevalent in greek tragedies. Dramatic Irony is used to generate suspense with the reader and to let the reader in on a minutiae of knowledge that most characters don't know yet. Lemony snicket the very knowledgeable and well known author of The Series of Unfortunate Events has a great example of Dramatic Irony, “Simply put, dramatic irony is when a person makes a harmless remark, and someone else who hears it knows something that makes the remark have a different, and usually unpleasant, meaning. For instance, if you were in a restaurant and said out loud, "I can't wait to eat the veal marsala I ordered," and there were people around who knew that the veal marsala was poisoned and that you would die as soon as you took a bite, your situation would be one of dramatic irony.” The well known Comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, written by the acclaimed author, poet, and thespian William Shakespeare uses many examples of Dramatic irony throughout the play. The uses of this literary device help to bring suspence …show more content…

This will give us an additional piece of insight into the scene so the audience knows what could happen but other characters are oblivious to what will happen. “Bait the hook well. This fish will bite” ( Shakespeare 35). In this scene the men are bamboozling Benedick, he is hiding in the bushes overhearing this conversation and receiving bogus information about Beatrice’s love for him. The readers are aware that this is a gimmick and they get to watch Benidick fall into this trap blindly like a lamb to the slaughter. The knowledge of this being a trap helps to further advance the comedic feature of this play. The audience follows along with the scene with the knowledge of this joke, which makes Benedick’s new found happiness even more

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Irony is used plenty throughout the story. Dramatic irony happens to be when the characters of the story know something yet we don't find out till later on in the story. We can pretty much say the story begins with dramatic irony without reading much of it. Usually when we hear or see the word Lottery, we think of some sort of price.

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Dramatic irony is a literal technique used religiously in the horror genre, in which the audience is aware of something that the character(s) are not. The audience witnesses something happen,

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In Benedick's case he is trying to mask his identity, however, this plan of his fails due to Beatrice's knowledge. "Why, he is the Prince's jester... I will leave him at the next turning" (Play). Benedick is trying to deceive Beatrice, in doing so he is hoping to uncover information about him

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This further supports the idea that Benedick’s love has greatly developed since the beginning of the play, and is completely in love with Beatrice. At this point, he would do anything for her love, even killing his

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O, she misused me past the endurance of a block! She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince`s jester” (ii.i,227-228,230-231).This quote emphasizes that Benedick and Beatrice once loved one another but Benedick was fooled to he once loved Beatrice. Its shows that his love for Beatrice is lost when mentioned, “she misused me past the endurance of a block!” , demonstrates through his bitter connotation with the word “misused” implicating that Beatrice did not appreciate her love towards Benedick. Benedick feels that Beatrice has fooled him to think he was a joke because she used hurtful words as Benedick recalls, “she told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince`s jester”, that ended their relationship in an instant.

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Irony Is Everywhere Irony can happen to many people, even heros. In the dramatic story ‘Oedipus the King’, Sophocles tells us of a story about a king realising his past and that a prophecy had came true. Types of ironies that can influence a hero’s tragic fall are situational, dramatic, and verbal. First, an irony that made a major influence to Oedipus’s tragic fall was situational irony. Oedipus started unraveling his past, finding out that he was saved as a child by a shepherd which said,”I felt such pity for the child.

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Don Pedro explains that he formulates this idea simply so that ‘the time shall not go dully by", yet the reason may be that he is a romantic character in the novel, and as such can see the hidden love between Benedick and Beatrice and wishes to bring them "in a mountain of affection"(Shakespeare 2.1.336-339). Benedick has already revealed to the audience that he cares for Beatrice but is just convincing himself that he doesn't. Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio, people that Benedick trusts, deceive Benedick into believing that Beatrice secretly loves him, guessing and hoping that he will realize the strength of his true feelings for her, and stop deceiving himself that he feels otherwise. Benedick believes "this can be no trick" and reveals his feelings for Beatrice and rather "be horribly in love with her" than continue to deny his love for her and deceive himself (Shakespeare

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Shakespeare’s fundamental understanding of language is, arguably, what makes the imaginative design of his various works so transcendent. With layer upon layer of meaning, his words leave an infinite amount of room for speculation and analysis. This legacy shines particularly bright within the Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Witty banter and passionate speeches drive the play – even the title is given dimension through Shakespeare’s choice of words! The words “nothing” and “noting” were pronounced in a similar way around the time Shakespeare wrote this play, so it is reasonable to assume that he was implying a connection between the driving force of the play (deceit) and “noting” when he chose the title.

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In the play, “Much Ado about Nothing”, Shakespeare creates comedy not from humorous situations but deriving it from the characters themselves and their manners. Whilst it also contains some standard devices such as misperceptions, disguises and false reports, this can be interpreted for both noble and distasteful reasons. In the play whether deception is acceptable or not depends on the intentions of the deceivers; if the intention is to promote happiness, then this creates comedy but if the deceiver intends harm then this creates aspects of tragedy. Therefore “Much Ado About Nothing” also contains elements of a tragi-comedy, for example the shaming and denouncement of Hero due to false pretence instigated by numerous characters.

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William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing is considered a comedy because it features characters who both block and facilitate relationships. Every major character in the play either plays the role of a blocker or an arranger. However, Shakespeare gives the comedy another depth in that a character may be a blocker in one scene, but an arranger in another. This variance in a character’s stance reflects that anyone can act as a blocker or as an arranger at any point.

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Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence. ”(Benedick 2.3.126-128) Their goal was to compel Benedick to swear his love to Beatrice, and it worked. Benedick admits, “They say the lady is fair; ‘tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuous; ‘tis so, I cannot reprove it.

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141 Words | 1 Pages

Dramatic irony is when the audience and other characters know information that one specific character does not, causing irony. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ blindness to his past causes an extensive amount of dramatic irony. As the play goes on, and Oedipus is revealed more of the truth, the dramatic irony increases. Oedipus starts off being oblivious to his past, but as he gets deeper into his conversation with Tiresias, more is revealed to him. Tiresias is very wise and knows all, unlike Oedipus.

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1217 Words | 5 Pages

No matter what the tale, a reader being aware of a detail that is not apparent to the actual character always makes for an enticing story. In both, As You Like It and The Importance of Being Earnest, dramatic irony is used effectively for humour. Whether it is making the reader feel as if the characters are oblivious, creating a subplot of romance, or simply a case of mistaken identity, dramatic irony always captures the reader’s attention. Dramatic irony creates situations in which certain characters are oblivious to events that are imminent, however the reader is completely aware of what shall happen. At certain points in the story, readers may be figuratively shouting at the text due to the fact that characters are on the edge of a bad decision;

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691 Words | 3 Pages

This juxtaposes Claudio and Hero’s relationship is based on purely on physical looks, which are not always truthful. In an opposing manner, Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship was not started from a completely dishonest place. Over years they had built a relationship through passive aggressive remarks rather than physicality, thus ensuring that they would know each other at their core. Therefore in order to move the relationship along it only took light coaxing of the small truths to progress their love. For instance, in Act One Beatrice and Benedick’s “merry war” of arguments is viewed as a type of flirting instead of actual anger or annoyance towards each other (1.1.50-54).

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646 Words | 3 Pages

Dramatic irony is that irony which can be understood by audience but not by characters. Dramatic irony is of three types: verbal irony, tragic irony and situational irony. In this play, dramatic irony has been used for many purposes. In this essay, the irony used to emphasize Oedipus’ complex past will be discussed. To understand that lets discuss Oedipus’ past first.

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