Verbal Irony Research Paper

555 Words3 Pages
Irony is everywhere. Some may not notice it but nevertheless it’s there. It appears in our movies, our literature, and our day to day lives. You may be wondering: So what? Who cares that everything’s ironic? Well let me tell you why. Irony is the use of words or events to convey a different reality than what actually exists. Irony is what makes things interesting; it adds humor and surprise to our otherwise dull existence. The use of words to create irony is what we would call verbal irony. This is often used in sarcasm however sarcasm usually has more of a negative tone than verbal irony by itself. For instance, if you tell a ballerina to “break a leg” right before a performance, you aren’t really telling the performer to cause…show more content…
This is what is called situational irony or the use of events to portray a different meaning than what is expected. This is what many people would hear pointed out on a daily basis. Things along the line of hearing that the fire station burned down or that a pickpocket is pressing charges against a man that took his wallet while the pickpocket was distracted stealing a woman's purse. Other instances include things that are more subtle like the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses don’t partake in Halloween. This is perhaps because they don’t appreciate strange people knocking on their door asking for things. While these are all ironic situations that could easily make it into a conversation and bring some laughs from the group there are also many instances of situational irony that have a considerably darker tone. These can be found most often in literature as “plot twists” like in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Towards the end of the play when Romeo finds Juliet drugged he assumes she’s dead therefor he kills himself only for Juliet to awaken and find Romeo dead causing her to kill herself. This is both situational irony and dramatic irony since Romeo killed himself because he couldn’t live without Juliet and Juliet for the same reason. This is dramatic irony because we, the audience know exactly what’s going on whereas the characters are
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