1. Huckleberry Finn
Irony

2. Irony Huck (as Tom): “We blowed out a cylinder-head.”
Aunt Sally: “Good gracious! Anybody hurt?”
Huck: “No’m. Killed a n----.”
Aunt Sally: ‘Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.”

3. Irony
the use of words to express the opposite of what one really means
Incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected result
Does Twain really think it’s “lucky,” as Aunt Sally and Huck apparently do, that just a slave was killed in the steamboat explosion?

4. Irony What are some examples of irony?
Think about books, TV shows, movies, songs and your own lives.
How can you tell when someone is being ironic?
Sarcasm, tragedy, unexpected events

5. Dramatic Irony
When an audience knows more about a character’s situation than a character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character’s expectations, and thus assigning a sharply different sense to some of the character’s own statements
Don’t look behind the shower curtain!

6. Verbal Irony
The use of words to convey something other than, and especially the opposite of the literal meaning of the words, to emphasize or make light or a circumstance or subject.
“Lovely day for a stroll.”

7. Situational Irony
A contradiction of expectation between what might be expected and what actually occurs often connected to a fatalistic or pessimistic view of life
Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink

8. Mark Twain knows the score
“It is impossible to read Huck Finn intelligently without understanding that Mark Twain’s consciousness and awareness is larger than that of any of the characters in the novel, including Huck. Indeed, part of what makes the book so effective is the fact that Huck is too innocent and ignorant to understand what’s wrong with his society and what’s right about his own transgressive behavior. Twain, on the other hand, knows the score.”
- Shelly Fisher Fishkin, Twain Scholar

9. Your own Irony Find at least one example of irony in Huck Finn.
Cite the page number and paraphrase the example.
This example is how you earn points for participating in this lecture.