Parvathi Deepak Ms. Dorner English 9B 10 April 2024 Irony Through Setting and Characterization England’s national poet, William Shakespeare, uses irony in his most famous play Romeo and Juliet to captivate the audience’s attention. In Act 4 of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo returns to Verona to find his true love, Juliet, to be “dead”. The audience knows that Juliet is not actually dead and is just in a deep sleep. However, Romeo, believing that Juliet’s death is real, ends up drinking poison and killing himself in order to join her. The irony here is that the audience knows the truth about Juliet's “death” but Romeo does not, and ends up killing himself for nothing. Authors and poets often use irony in their work to create suspense and contrast in …show more content…
Summers’s name may seem warm and cheery, Mr. Graves’s name reminds the readers that not everything is as happy as it may seem. Jackson states, “The postmaster, Mr. Graves, follow[s] him, carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool is placed in the center of the square, and Mr. Summers set[s] the black box down on it” (Jackson 1). Shirley Jackson uses these names and describes the setting in this way on purpose in order to reflect the irony of the short story. Using literary devices such as characterization, setting descriptions, and strategic names of characters, Shirley Jackson creates irony and sustains the audience’s interest in her short story “The Lottery”. She uses contrast in her characters’ attitude and behavior as the story moves forward, causing readers to question their motives and the plot itself. The misleading setting of the story, as well as the characters’ names, keep the readers reading until the very end. Oftentimes, writers use these devices to create irony in their texts to show the difference between reality and how things are expected to appear. Its ability to surprise readers and engage the audience is what makes it so effective. It is also the reason why many literary icons, such as Shakespeare, use it in their