Irony is a literary device in which words are used to express a contradiction between appearance and reality—usually the reality is the opposite of what it seems. There are several types of irony:
• Verbal Irony is the use of words to express something different from or opposite to its literal meaning. In other words, don’t take what this person is saying as the bare truth! Sarcasm, overstatement and understatement, and hyperbole are all examples of verbal irony.
For example: A mother opens the door to her son’s disaster area of a bedroom and says, “I am so glad you found the time to clean today—your room looks better than ever!”
• Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that is going to happen to a character, and that character has no idea of his fate. Think of a scary movie in which you see the killer, but the soon-to-be victim has no idea that a killer is there!
• Situational Irony is a contradiction between what we expect to happen, and what actually happens.
For example: You spend hours washing and waxing your car in the sunshine, only to have it rain the next day; or the fact that the Titanic was hailed as “unsinkable” before it made its mortal voyage!
Directions: For the following examples from Brave New World, identify first the type of irony, and then explain the irony of the situation. An example has been done for you.
Example: As John realizes he will be going to the “new” world, he says “O brave new world that has such people in it” Later, as he gets to know this civilization, he again says, “O brave new world that has such people in it”