Irony is one of the rhetorical devices in which it it uncovers the difference between the truth and something expected. Predominantly, it detects the misconceptions or the unfairness of a specific situation. (http://figurativelanguage.net/Irony.html) Most of the time, Frederick Douglass used irony in order to uncover the defect in the reasoning of the issue of slavery. For instance, in the third chapter, Douglass made a description about the obssesive care of his previous master named Colonel Lloyd on his horses.
Twain: In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country” the tone of the narrator’s relationship began on the very first page. The narrator says that he has a “lurking suspicion” that Leonidas W. Smiley is made up and that Wheeler would “bore me to death with some exasperating reminiscence of him as long and as tedious as it should be useless to me” (Twain 1285). The narrator says that Simon Wheeler’s story telling is a “monotonous narrative” with no expressions (Twain 1285). Wheeler tells a Story about a man named Jim Smiley and uses figurative language to portray imagery throughout.
In the short story “The Mark of the Beast,” the author Rudyard Kipling uses all three types of irony- dramatic, situational, and verbal. The first type of irony is dramatic irony, which is when the audience knows something the characters do not. The second type of irony is situational irony, and it occurs when the opposite event happens then what the audience expects. The third type of irony is verbal irony; this is defined as a situation where a character says one thing, but means something completely different. An example of situational irony in “The Mark of the Beast” would be on page nine, in paragraph three, when the narrator and Strickland gave the leper the devices they used to torture him; this represents situational irony because
The Ironic Truth Irony is a complex and important element of literature that can help discover hidden perspectives within characters or hide the truth in plain sight. The story by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” is a great example the dark ironic twist that happen in the story. The main character, Montresor, is hell-bent on getting his revenge on the man who shamed him, Fortunato. The verbal and dramatic irony that is being used in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” helps hide the true intentions that Montresor has planned for Fortunato. Verbal irony happens when one character says one thing but actually means something completely different.
Irony is a language device, either in spoken or written form in which the meaning is contradicted in a situation where there is an incongruity between what is expected and what occurs. For instance, in the short story Gore, there are multiple examples of irony. An example from Gore of a situational irony, which is shown at the end is when the bigger and stronger twin, Lucas is tricked by Amy’s intelligence. As Amy takes two steps into the bathroom and says, “Success! Triumph!,” we can infer Amy has succeeded with her plan and has proved her ability by challenging what many readers expected.
Mark Twain uses dramatic irony to create humor in the text “The Adventure of Tom Sawyer,” by using the characters in the story for example Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain uses Tom Sawyer in the text for humor in the story. Tom Shawyer tricks the neighborhood boys into doing his work by making it look fun and entertaining. In the text Tom Sawyer was kind of being talking to Ben in sarcasm and using words to trick Ben 's mind like he’s brainwashing him. “On page 297 paragraph 23-30” it talked about how Ben wanted to whitewash the fence for Tom Sawyer, “No-is that so?
One example of Irony is how Peter talks about how unfair it is to pass the final exam because some people might have more fears than others, but then throughout the whole book Peter uses unfair tricks, such as when he stabs Edward in the eye, to try to gain his way to the top of the list. This is an example of situational irony. This is situational irony because the reader would expect that Peter would do everything fairly but then he turns around and does stuff like kidnapping Tris and Stabbing people's eyes out.
Verbal irony involves a character saying one thing, and meaning another. Situational irony consists of what is expected to happen, and what actually happens. Three types of irony found in Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”, are dramatic, verbal, and situational irony. A good example of dramatic irony occurs when Montresor explains to Fortunato that he is also a mason. Then, Fortunato asks for a sign.
Does the thought of betting on a frog’s ability to jump sound humorous? In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Mark Twain tells the story of betting on a jumping frog. In the story, Twain uses the power of vernacular language to convey the painfully comedic story that the narrator has to endure, and its all for another’s amusement. Twain was writing in the nineteenth century at a time when writers were expected to use formal language, yet Twain wrote in the vernacular language.
Irony is usually thought of to be used in a humorous tone, and most of the time it is. These two works of Bierce and Crane take irony and transform it into three other kind of ironies: situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony. All of these ironies can be thought of to the same degree. All three of these are used when an event that happens seems contrary to what one would expect (Merriam-Webster.com).
Irony is when the use of words is used to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning. In Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” the irony is that everyone is trying to lose the lottery instead of winning because if you win you will be stoned. In Ray Bradbury's “All Summer in a Day” the irony is that the one who wanted to see the sun the most was locked up when it came out and didn't get to see it. In Susan Glaspell's “ A Jury of Her Peers” the irony is that the “jury” was really made up of a sheriff, his wife, Mr. Hale and his wife none of which were considered her peers. This essay will talk about the comparison of irony in all three stories.
Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected.
Irony is a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts ( Glossary... Pg 1). The greatest example of irony happens when it turns out Armand is the one that comes from black heritage. He learns this when he “finds a letter from his mom to his father explaining how he is black” turning the main plot of this story around (Chopin... Pg 5)
Twain is highly regarded as a master of these devices and expertly uses them to display humor. For example, in his story "The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn," he uses these devices many times, such as in this passage: "Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me." This passage demonstrates intense irony in the way that Huck is actually fairly intelligent and understands society, but it is ironic that he believed what Jim said. The authors use of irony and satire in this passage adds humor and depth to this book and develops how the characters react to different environments. This also shows his humor in the way he can have his characters go through ironic situations, and from that, the readers can interpret that.
Irony may appear in difference ways within literature. Irony changes our expectations of what might happen. It can create the unexpected twist at the end of a story or anecdote that gets people laughing or crying. Verbal irony is intended to be a humorous type of irony. Situational irony can be either funny or tragic.
