1. Dramatic and Verbal Irony Lesson from Night

2. Definitions Irony – A form of figurative language where words or actions are used to imply the opposite of its literal meaning. Use a dictionary and re-write this definition replacing each underlined word with a synonym or group of words that you understand

3. Irony – re-write Irony – A form of figurative language where words or actions are used to suggest or indicate the opposite of its actual or factual meaning. Examples: When I told my friend I had to work all weekend, she said “How nice!” Literal interpretation: “It is nice to be at work on the weekend.” Ironic interpretation: “It is terrible to have to work on the weekend.”

4. Verbal Irony When a character says or believes something that the audience knows is not true. A character may or may not be aware that his/her statement is ironic. Example: A slave owner stated, “My slaves respect and love me when I discipline them with beatings and starvations.”

5. What is the literal interpretation of this statement? Slaves love their owners especially when they are beaten and starved. What is the ironic interpretation? Slaves despise their owners especially when they are beaten or starved and the owner is completely ignorant of this fact.

6. Verbal Irony On the gate of Auschwitz said “Work makes you free.” What is the literal interpretation? Work will set you free from this prison. What is the ironic interpretation? Prisoners are worked to death and this gives them freedom from the work.

7. Dramatic irony Definition: When a scene or action occurs that implies a meaning. Walter Mitty, a tremendous failure as a man, sees himself standing like a hero against the brick wall of a drugstore. What is the literal interpretation? He will one day be a hero. What is the ironic interpretation? The audience knows that he will never be a hero because he is such a failure as a person.

8. Dramatic Irony “Because he was stronger than most of us, he had been put in charge of our wagon…And Meir Katz, the strong one, the sturdiest of us all, began to cry…Only now did he fall apart…he could not go on…he had reached the end.” What is the literal interpretation? What is the ironic interpretation?