Irony: In Greek comedy the character called the eiron was a dissembler, who characteristically spoke in understatement and pretended to be less intelligent than he was, yet triumphed over the alazon the self-deceiving and stupid braggart. (See in Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, 1957.) In most modern critical uses of the term “irony,” there remains the root sense of dissembling or of hiding what is actually the case—not, however, in order to deceive, but to achieve special rhetorical or artistic effects.
Verbal irony (which was traditionally classified as one of the tropes) is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker implies differs sharply from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed. The ironic statement usually involves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indication in the overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different, and often opposite, attitude or evaluation. Thus in Canto IV of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1714), after Sir Plume, egged on by the ladies, has stammered out his incoherent request for the return of the stolen lock of hair, the Baron answers:
“It grieves me much,” replied the Peer again,
“Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain.”
This is a straightforward case of an ironic reversal of the surface statement (of which one effect is to give pleasure to the reader) because there are patent clues, established by the preceding narrative, that the Peer is not in the least aggrieved and does not think that poor Sir Plume has spoken at all well. A more complex instance of irony is the famed sentence with which Jane Austen opens Pride and Prejudice (1813): “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”; part of the ironic implication (based on assumptions that Austen assumes the audience shares with her) is that a single woman is in want of a rich husband. Sometimes the use of irony by Pope and other masters is very complicated: the meaning and evaluations may be subtly qualified rather than simply reversed, and the clues to the ironic counter-meanings under the literal statement or even to the fact that the author intends the statement to be understood ironically may be oblique and unobtrusive. That is why recourse to irony by an author tends to convey an implicit compliment to the intelligence of readers, who are invited to associate themselves with the author and the knowing minority who are not taken in by the ostensible meaning. That is also why many literary ironists are misinterpreted and sometimes (like Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift in the eighteenth century) get into serious trouble with the obtuse authorities. Following the intricate and shifting maneuvers of great ironists like Plato, Swift, Voltaire, Austen, or Henry James is a test of skill in reading between the lines.
Some literary works exhibit structural irony, that is, the author, instead of using an occasional verbal irony, introduces a structural feature that serves to sustain a duplex meaning and evaluation throughout the work. One common literary device of this sort is the invention of a naïve hero, or else a naive narrator or spokesman, whose invincible simplicity or obtuseness leads him to put an interpretation on affairs which the knowing reader penetrates to, and shares, the implied point of view of the authorial presence behind the naive persona—just as persistently. (Note that verbal irony depends on knowledge of the ironic intention of the fictional speaker, which is shared by both the speaker and the reader, while structural irony depends on a knowledge of the ironic intention of the author, which is shared by the reader but is not the intention of the fictional speaker.) One example of the naive spokesman is Swift’s well-meaning but insanely rational and morally obtuse economist who writes the Modest Proposal (1729) to convert the excess children of the oppressed and poverty-stricken Irish into a financial and gastronomical asset. Other examples are Swift’s stubbornly credulous Gulliver, the self-deceiving and paranoid monologuist in Browning’s Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister (1842), and the insane editor, Kinbote, in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (1962). A related structural device for sustaining ironic qualification is the use of the fallible narrator, in which the teller of the story is a participant in it. Although such a narrator may be neither stupid, credulous, nor demented, he nevertheless manifests a failure of insight by viewing and appraising his own motives, and the motives and actions of other characters, through what the reader is intended to recognize as the distorting perspective of the narrator’s own prejudices and interests.
In A Rhetoric of Irony (1974), Wayne Booth identifies as stable irony that in which the speaker or author makes available to the reader an assertion or position, which, whether explicit or implied, serves as a firm ground for ironically qualifying or subverting the surface meaning. Unstable irony, on the other hand, offers no fixed standpoint which is not itself undercut by further ironies. The literature of the absurd typically presents such a regression of ironies. At an extreme, as in Samuel Beckett’s drama Waiting for Godot (1955) or his novel The Unnamable (1960), there is an endless regress of ironic undercuttings. Such works suggest a denial that there is any secure evaluative standpoint, or even any determinable rationale, in the human situation.
Sarcasm in common parlance is sometimes used as an equivalent for irony, but it is far more useful to restrict it only to the crude and taunting use of apparent praise for dispraise: “Oh, you’re God’s great gift to women, you are!” The difference in application of the two terms is indicated by the difference in their etymologies; whereas “irony” derives from eiron, a “dissembler,” “sarcasm” derives from the Greek verb sarkazein, “to tear flesh.” An added clue to sarcasm is the exaggerated inflection of the speaker’s voice.
The term “irony,” qualified by an adjective, is used to identify various literary devices and modes of organization:
• Socratic irony takes its name from the fact that, as he is represented in Plato’s dialogues (fourth century BC), the philosopher Socrates usually dissembles by assuming a pose of ignorance, an eagerness to be instructed, and a modest readiness to entertain opinions proposed by others, although these opinions, upon his continued questioning, turn out to be ill-grounded or to lead to absurd consequences.
• Dramatic irony involves a situation in a play or a narrative in which the audience or reader shares with the author knowledge of present or future circumstances of which a character is ignorant.
• Cosmic irony (or “the irony of fate”) is attributed to literary works in which a deity, or fate, is represented as though deliberately manipulating events so as to lead the protagonist to false hopes, only to frustrate and mock them. This is a favorite structural device of Thomas Hardy.
• Romantic irony is a term introduced by Friedrich Schlegel and other German writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to designate a mode of dramatic or narrative writing in which the author builds up the illusion of representing reality, only to shatter the illusion by revealing that the author, as artist, is the creator and arbitrary manipulator of the characters and their actions.
A number of writers associated with the New Criticism used “irony” as a general criterion of literary value. See Wayne C. Booth, A Rhetoric of Irony (1974); Linda Hutcheon, Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony (1995); Claire Colebrook, Irony (2003).
Irony: A Simple Explanation with Examples
Irony is when something happens or is said in a way that is different from what is expected. It is often used in stories, plays, and daily conversations to create humor, criticism, or a deeper message. Irony makes writing more interesting and thought-provoking.
Main Types of Irony
- Verbal Irony (Opposite of What is Said)
• This happens when someone says something but actually means the opposite.
• Example: A teacher sees a student sleeping in class and says, “Wow, you are working so hard!”
• In literature, Alexander Pope uses verbal irony in The Rape of the Lock. A character sarcastically praises someone who did not actually do well. - Structural Irony (The Whole Story is Ironic)
• This type of irony runs throughout a book or story. The narrator or character believes something to be true, but the reader understands that it is false.
• Example: In A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, the narrator seriously suggests that poor people should sell their children as food. The idea is shocking, but the readers understand that Swift is actually mocking the way poor people were treated in society.
• Another example is in Gulliver’s Travels, where Gulliver believes he is seeing great societies, but readers understand that Swift is actually criticizing human foolishness. - Dramatic Irony (The Audience Knows More Than the Character)
• This happens when the audience or reader knows something that a character does not.
• Example: In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is looking for the man who caused the city’s troubles, but the audience already knows that he himself is the guilty person.
• In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio believes he is about to receive good fortune, but the audience knows that he has been tricked. - Cosmic Irony (Irony of Fate or Destiny)
• This is when life or fate plays a cruel joke on someone. No matter what they do, things go wrong.
• Example: In Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, the main character, Tess, loses her happiness not because of her mistakes, but because life is unfair to her. She tries to do the right things, but fate keeps pushing her into difficult situations.
• This kind of irony makes readers think
Irony in “A Letter to God”
In A Letter to God by Gregorio López y Fuentes, irony is seen in Lencho’s strong faith in God but complete distrust in humans.
Lencho, a poor farmer, loses his crops due to a heavy storm. With deep faith in God, he writes a letter asking for 100 pesos to survive. The postmaster, touched by his faith, collects money from his colleagues and donates it anonymously. However, Lencho receives only 70 pesos instead of 100. Instead of feeling grateful, he becomes angry and believes that the post office workers have stolen the remaining money.
This is situational irony because:
• Lencho trusts God completely but doubts the very people who helped him.
• He expected God to send the money, but it was actually kind-hearted humans who helped.
• Instead of thanking them, he calls them “thieves” and asks God not to send money through the post office.
This irony highlights how blind faith can sometimes lead to misunderstanding and how kindness can go unrecognized.
