Irony is a device used in speaking and writing to deliberately express ideas so they can be understood in two different ways. There are three basic kinds of irony: (1) verbal irony, (2) dramatic irony, and (3) irony of fate.
Verbal irony is used to strengthen a statement by forcing the listener or reader to seek its true meaning. Suppose, for example, that a ballet dancer trips several times and her choreographer says, “You were very graceful!” The choreographer is using irony and actually means the opposite of what the words seem to say.
Dramatic irony occurs in drama or fiction when a character—or the audience or reader—knows something that the other characters do not know. In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus kills a man. He does not know that the man is Laius, his father. Oedipus puts a curse on the slayer of Laius. The irony is that Oedipus has unknowingly cursed himself.
Irony of fate occurs in a play or story when events work out contrary to expectations. Suppose that the characters are preparing a party for a returning soldier. But the soldier has just been killed in an accident on his way home. The irony comes from the contrast between the expectations of the characters and the actual situation.
Irony was a favored device in literary criticism of the 1900’s. It was used especially for distinguishing among the voices, beliefs, and actions of authors, narrators or speakers, characters, and readers.
