Alec Ainsworth, Amy Crowell, Brooke McAuley, Jane Paden

Irony
Irony is a literary device used to upset our expectations in order to achieve a particular
effect such as humor, tragedy, etc. Historically, irony has been synonymous with rhetoric, but has
sense become a technique in its own right1. Irony can be subdivided into several subtypes of
irony and is often confused with sarcasm.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
History of Irony
The Importance of Irony as a literary device
Types of Irony
Cosmic Irony
Examples of Cosmic Irony
Dramatic Irony
Examples of Dramatic Irony
Situational Irony
Examples of Situation Irony
Verbal Irony
Examples of Verbal Irony
Fundamentals for Teaching Irony in the Classroom
Elementary Level
High School Level
College Level
Works Cited

History of Irony
Irony can be found in many current ways of entertainment. Such as books, movies, social
media, and even at times the news. According to Professor Margart Atwood, Master Class
Literary teacher, Irony can be traced back all the way to the early sixteenth century in the
Ancient Greek stereotypical character known as Eiron. “Eiron is when a person brings down
their opponent by understanding his abilities, thus engaging in a type of irony by saying less than
what he means.”2. Writers at the time didn’t realize that they were using a literary device to
contrast between what we believe will happen versus what will actually happen. Professor
Atwood also mentions that irony stems from the French word “ironie” and that stemmed from
the Latin word “ironia”. Though it is known differently today, irony has been around since the
beginning of early literature.

Types of Irony
There are many different types of irony used for various effects. Some authors are
particularly known for certain types of irony. Cosmic, Dramatic, Situational, and Verbal Ironies
are explored below. These types are among the most common. Irony is often misused and
defining the irony types can be helpful in avoiding this3. However, verbal irony is still often
conflated with sarcasm even though the two are separate.

Cosmic Irony
Perhaps the most unique type of irony, cosmic irony is “used to denote a view of people
as the dupes of a cruelly mocking fate”4. Cosmic irony toys with the ideas of our expectations
and the concept that there is some higher being who is manipulating our fates. Cosmic irony is
essentially the base form of irony, but specifically created by a higher power, generally as a way
to demonstrate some form of ‘careful what you wish for’.

Examples of Cosmic Irony

The 2003 movie, Bruce Almighty, for example, finds the
main character gifted with godlike powers, but rather than
make his life better, like someone might expect from being
granted such power, it actually makes his life much more
difficult. The responsibilities of these abilities and the
impact they have on his life are very hard to deal with, and
Bruce finds himself regretting what he had wished for.
 Cosmic Irony does not necessarily need a God in order for it to be cosmic, just for the
being imposing the irony to be significantly more
powerful. For example, the 1992 film Aladdin sees title
character Aladdin turned into the perfect price by the
all-powerful genie, only for him to be rejected by Jasmine,
the girl who he changed for. In fact, the song that genie
goes on to sing about Aladdin after his transformation is
full of cosmic irony because Aladdin’s expectations of
what Jasmine wants versus what she actually wants are
completely subverted. Because the all-powerful genie
creates this situation, it is cosmic irony.

Dramatic Irony
Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience is privy to information that the character
themselves do not possess. Often used as a device to either create tension or set up a later plot
line, dramatic irony is used more frequently as a story telling device than its other ironic
counterparts.

Examples of Dramatic Irony

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet contains dramatic irony when each takes their own life
believing that the other is already dead (Smith). The dramatic irony being that the audience
wants the two star-crossed lovers to know the full truth. Each believed the other was dead and
the irony was the reality that neither was, until it was
too late. A more current work of irony can be found in
Disney’s movie, The Lion King, where the audience
knows the reality of a character's death before the
protagonist. In this case the audience knows Mufasa
died because of Scar; however, that is not proclaimed
in the movie until the near end.
Situational Irony
Situational irony occurs when a situation occurs opposite to our expectations. Situational
irony, like all types of irony, relies on the viewer’s understanding of what is expected in a
situation, and why this situation does not occur9. Situational irony in literature is often used to
point out a societal flaw or is used as a way for a plot twist.

Examples of Situation Irony

Author Lemony Snicket often utilized situational irony in his book series A Series of
Unfortunate Events to display the problems with how adults deal with and treat children. The
main three children in the series are often significantly more competent than any of the
adults—even the youngest child, who is only a toddler. The children are often the only ones able
to see through the villains’ schemes. In movies like The Sixth Sense situational irony is used to
trick the audience for a large plot twist. The main character is psychiatrist helping a young boy
who claims to see dead people, so the set-up is done in such a way that the audience would
expect the boy to be crazy or maybe do something harmful,
since the genre is horror. However, it turns out that the boy
can see dead people and the main character is just a ghost.
The movie uses its situation—being a horror movie—to
subvert the expectation of the audience.

Verbal Irony
Verbal irony is saying one thing but meaning another. As with the other types of irony, it
often comes with the caveat of being an unexpected statement. Verbal Irony is very similar
conceptually to sarcasm, and some say sarcasm to be a crude from of verbal irony, while others
say they are completely different altogether4.

Examples of Verbal Irony

In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, one of the
first encounters Darcy has with Elizabeth is him insulting her
appearance. He says about her, “She is tolerable, but not
handsome enough to tempt me.” The verbal irony here is in despite the fact he says this, Darcy
will end up bending over backwards in order to marry Elizabeth. One of the most famous literary
examples of verbal irony is in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. His use of verbal irony in
this work helps to establish just how much he is admonishing the upper echelons of his society.
He says things like, “I rather recommend buying the children alive and dressing them hot from
the knife, as we do roasting pigs.” Of course, he actually means the opposite.

Irony as a Literary Device

Irony allows writers to express a form of unexpected outcome that can also be referred to as a
plot twist and is often more appealing than the expected narrative. For students of all ages,
different levels of irony are taught to create a more challenging form of education and curriculum
as the student progresses. Author Brian Connolly believed that:

For irony’s outcome can’t be guaranteed. Coming down neither on the side of language
viewed as frothy superficial nor on the side of a ‘realism’ which is supposedly wider,
grander, and earthier than language, irony is constitutionally incapable of settling, since it
must adhere to its principled hesitancy and to its openness to revision20.

Irony is an essential element of literature that allows students to collectively interpret forms of
comedy and drama in all forms of literature.

Fundamentals for Teaching Irony in the Classroom

Elementary Level

At a young age, children often cannot discern the truth and exaggerations from their
imagination. Irony is a difficult concept to grasp at an early age. Especially when irony is utilized
in a literary sense, younger children find it more challenging to discern that irony is present14.
For example, in the children's book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie , irony is exemplified
in verbal and situational irony that young children find amusing and relatable.
The mouse in the children’s book illustrated situational irony that did not rely
on verbal or literary irony but on the mouse's actions, which is clearer to a younger audience.
Situational irony is considerably more amusing for children and comprehensible through
visualizations that the children's book details. A more complex example for
children and elementary schools regarding situational irony is Dr. Seuss' The
Lorax (1971). The Lorax provides an advanced concept of situational irony
when the narrator, the Once-ler, decimates the landscape and his only source
of income. Irony in children’s education heavily relies on the moral of the
story being the foil of the character for the plot to develop further.

High School Level

Irony’s complexity in literature and the students' ability to distinguish dramatic,

situational, and verbal irony increase by each grade level a student completes. For instance, plays
such as Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare are critically analyzed for
their usage of dramatic irony. Unlike situational irony, which can be taken
immediately, dramatic irony involves only the audience and a selected
character to know the destined outcome that is unexpected from the rest of
the cast. The narrative is the central driving point in plays that develop
dramatic irony, where the story derives from the cast not knowing critical
information17.
Dramatic irony is more accessible and understandable for high school students who will
undergo Shakespeare’s works. Students in the high school setting can convey situational irony
and administer dramatic irony into the curriculum. Theatre is readily available in both literary
and visual content, where it is made readily available to high school students. At the high school
level, students cannot only consume the media but also analyze where the irony becomes the
narrative to the story.

College Level

Once students have mastered situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony, they will
be able to comprehend one of the more difficult forms of irony, such as historial irony and satire.
Both historical irony and satire involve the culmination of situation, dramatic, and verbal irony
applied to circumstances in time and often times understanding the political climate from when
the piece of writing was published.
One of the most successful examples of satire came from Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” which
combatted the United States military efforts during the second world war.
Satire is one of the highest forms of irony due to the nature and specific
requirements in literature. Joseph Heller created the term a “Catch-22” to
define an unsolvable situation where two undesirable results are given as a
solution. The satire qualification of combatting social criticism comes
from Heller’s criticism of actions taken in the second world war and
forcing soldiers to make decisions against their desire and will. Satire is
the advanced representation of irony that involves college students to
already understand multiple levels of other irony. Historical irony offers a
similar explanation. However, historical irony is the retrospective examination of both ongoing
events that were caused from the past and detailing instances where the most convenient answer
reciprocated the opposite effect.
Frederick Douglass provided one of the most famous examples of historical irony when
he orated his speech for the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in 1852 for the 4th of July.
Independence was celebrated by all free people in the United States on the 4th of July, however
Douglass gave his speech while millions of African Americans were still held captive and
slavery. Douglass addressed the few hundred people at the event that of the historian irony that
befell the request:
This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in
fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in
joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to
mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct19.
Historical irony increases in its ironic value overtime. Douglass gave his speech after
slavery was introduced for hundreds of years in the new world and nearly a century after the
United States of America was established in freedom. Often hypocrisy is at the foundation of
historical irony and critically analyzed by college students and in intersectionality in other
aspects of American history.
Irony and Social Media
Irony, in all its forms, can be found throughout all facets of life. From the emergence of social
media in today’s society, irony has been a prevalent device that is often used by those on each
respective platform. The most often form of irony users of social media use is verbal irony. Since
everything on social media comes down to an individual's interpretation, it can be difficult to tell
when a writer is using a type of irony

Uses and How to Identify Irony

Although the most common form of irony found within social media would be verbal irony, all
of its forms can be found scattered across the platforms. While hashtags originally arose as a
popular way to communicate what the post is about, hashtags today are often used as a way to be
ironic21. In the study A Qualitative Analysis of Sarcasm, Irony and Related #hashtags on Twitter,
the writers found that algorithms can typically detect and pull-out hashtags and other statements
that are being said in an ironic way21. This, although not a perfect science, provided a database of
sarcastic and ironic language used on this platform. Aside from hashtags, users also use different
forms of punctuation in order to show that they are being ironic.
The ways in which irony is used can vary from user to user and it is often a gamble on whether
or not the writer is being ironic or not. In most situations, one must take the context of the post
into account in order to truly know if the writer is being ironic or not. If not much context is
provided, looking at the punctuation and other indicators is a good way to tell whether or not the
person is serious.

The Problems with Irony in Social Media

While Irony is a good form of expression for those who chose to use it, it can come with many
problems. The first problem is telling whether or not a person is being ironic or sarcastic. The
difference here would be that sarcasm is typically seen as clear-cut and labeled while irony takes
the literal meaning and changes it22. This leads to the second problem which would be the
identification of irony. Some may find it hard to tell the difference between the two and it could
lead to a misinterpretation of the writer's original message. Not only that but, some readers may
find it hard to identify irony in its pure form, taking the text for what it specifically says.
Works Cited
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Accessed 9 February 2022.
2.) Atwood, Margaret. “What Is Irony? Different Types of Irony in Literature, plus Tips on How to Use Irony
in Writing - 2022.” MasterClass, 3 Sept. 2021,
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-irony-different-types-of-irony-in-literature-plus-tips-on-how-t
o-use-irony-in-writing#what-are-the-main-types-of-irony.
3.) Preminger, A. & Brogan, T. V. F. Brogan, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, MJF
Books, 1993, ISBN 9780691032719, pp. 633–635.
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Reference. Date Accessed 28 Feb. 2022
<https://www-oxfordreference-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/a
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5.) Shadyac, Tom, director. Bruce Almighty. 2003.
6.) “Aladdin.” Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, 1992.
7.) Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by David Garrick, Cornmarket Pr., 1969.
8.) Mecchi, Irene, et al. The Lion King. 1995.
9.) Lucariello, Joan. “Situational Irony: A Concept of Events Gone Awry.” Journal of Experimental
Psychology. General, vol. 123, no. 2, June 1994, p. 129. EBSCOhost,
https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1037/0096-3445.123.2.129.
10.) Snicket, Lemony, and Brett Helquist. A Series of Unfortunate Events. Egmont Books, 2002.
11.) Shyamalan, Manoj Night, director. The Sixth Sense. 1999.
12.) Attwood, E. M., and Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. Pearson Education, 2008.
13.) Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. 1729.
14.) Dews, Shelly, et al. “Children’s Understanding of the Meaning and Functions of Verbal Irony.” Child
Development, vol. 67, no. 6, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 1996, pp. 3071–85,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01903.x.
15.) Numeroff, Laura Joffe, and Felicia Bond. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. Seedlings Braille Books for
Children, 2018.
16.) Geisel, Theodor Seuss. The Lorax. Random House, 1972.
17.) Faller, Stephen “The Pangs of Socratic Irony.” The Art of Spiritual Midwifery, The Lutterworth Press,
2015, p. 52.
18.) Heller, Joseph. Catch 22. J.W. Cappelens Forlag, 1994.
19.) Douglass, Frederick, , Julie Husband, and John R. McKivigan. The Speeches of Frederick Douglass : A
Critical Edition. Critical .
20.) Connolly, Brian. “History, Irony, Identity.” Feminist Theory, vol. 21, no. 3, Aug. 2020, pp. 305–315,
doi:10.1177/1464700120928295.)
21.) Sykora, Martin. “A Qualitative Analysis of Sarcasm, Irony and Related #Hashtags on Twitter.” 1 Dec.
2020.
22.) Van Hee, Cynthia. “Exploring the Realization of Irony in Twitter Data.” 2016.