Irony: Verbal, Situational, and Dramatic Unexpected! Dialogue! Events! “Oh! Hey, Janet!...How am I? I’m great!” --Guy Holding Hammer to His Head and Using Verbal Irony in a Cheerful Voice

Irony (The general definition of) An unexpected outcome, whether a spoken contradiction (verbal), an event that you don’t see coming (situational), or that characters in a story/play do not expect it—but the reader does (dramatic). Three different kinds of irony: Verbal Situational Dramatic

Verbal Irony Occurs when someone says something that deliberately contradicts what that person actually means. Ex: Positive connotations- “Well, my appetite is spoiled…” A diner at a restaurant could say this when the food obviously looks delicious, therefore implying that they think it looks good, even though they literally said they couldn’t possibly eat the dish. Ex: Negative connotations- Sarcasm. “Hey! You should definitely not pay attention during a lesson on irony!” A teacher would (hopefully) want you to pay attention during a lesson on anything, especially irony! Sheesh!

Situational Irony Occurs when something happens (an event) that contradicts our expectation. This can be applied to our own lives as well as stories we read. Examples from “The Notorious Jumping Frog…” We don’t expect Simon Wheeler to go into a very long tale about a man that only has the same last name as the man that the narrator is looking for. Unexpected that a dog would fight only when it smelled or saw money. We expect a man to have condolences and concern for a neighbor’s wife…until Jim Smiley tries to be his neighbor, Parson Walker, that Mrs. Walker would get worse and die. Examples from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” We as readers do not expect Peyton Farquhar to die at the end of the story. An anti-technology website—who saw that one coming?

Dramatic Irony Occurs when the reader or audience is aware of a contradiction that a character(s) does not know. Ex: Romeo and Juliet Ex: “The Notorious Jumping Frog…” We know that Simon Wheeler is “full of it” from the beginning of his tale, but he does not; and neither did the narrator of the story when Wheeler was actually talking about Smiley.