POETRY IRONY - PARADOX

IRONY: a mode of expression, through words [verbal irony] or events [irony of situation], conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation The ability to detect irony is sometimes heralded as a test of intelligence and sophistication

Techniques for creating irony: say the opposite of what one means create a reversal between expectation and its fulfillment give the audience knowledge that a character lacks

Verbal irony: the writer’s meaning or even his attitude may be different from what he says Example: after Ms. Hanlon gives a very hard and very unfair exam, the students proclaim as they walk out: “Have a nice weekend Mr. Rishel!”

Situational irony: a situation in which there is an incongruity between actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate or between what is anticipated and what actually comes to pass Example: if a professional pickpocket had his own pocket picked just as he was in the act of picking someone else’s pocket

Dramatic irony: where the audience has knowledge that gives additional meaning to a character’s words Example: In Oedipus the King, King Oedipus, who has unknowingly killed his father, says that he will banish his father’s killer when he finds him

BLOOM’S DEFINITIONS OF IRONY When a writer or character says one thing and means another, often the opposite of what was explicitly stated Juxtaposition of “antithetical ideas” or ideas that are in direct opposition to one another Multiple, and sometimes differing, definitions of a single subject The imaginative ideas that spark our interests and curiosities as a reader; Remember Thoreau’s “free and wild thinking”?

SARCASM, SATIRE, & IRONY SARCASM: cruel – intention: to cause injury SATIRE: cruel & kind – intention: to ridicule in order to create reform IRONY: simply a tool or device used in the service of creating sarcasm or satire Sarcasm is cruel as a bully is cruel: it intends to give hurt. Satire is both cruel and kind, as a surgeon is cruel and kind: it gives hurt in the interest of the patient. Irony is neither cruel or kind: it is simply a device, like a bully’s fist or a surgeon’s scalpel, for performing any operation more skillfully.

PARADOX An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true What at first seems impossible is actually entirely plausible and not strange at all The contradiction usually stems from one of the words being used figuratively or in more than one sense Contains a shock value; its seeming impossibility startles the reader into attention and its absurdity underscores the truth of what is being said EXAMPLE: “I must be cruel only to be kind.” --Hamlet

OVERSTATEMENT & UNDERSTATEMENT OVERSTATEMENT (HYPERBOLE): exaggeration in the service of truth UNDERSTATEMENT (LITOTES): saying less than one means

EXAMPLES “The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice.” Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded / That all the Apostles would have done as they did. A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket. Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse. . . . Where ignorance is bliss, / ‘Tis folly to be wise. All night I made my bed to swim; with my tears I dissolved my couch. Believe him, he has know the world too long, / And seen the death of much immortal song. Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never did but once. . . . all men would be cowards if they durst.