1. Irony and Ambiguity
Mr. Pettine
10/19/2015
English 9

2. It’s Ironic…
Irony is a contrast between expectation and reality – between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what is really true.

3. Irony There are three types of irony: Verbal Irony Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony

4. Verbal Irony
In verbal irony, a writer or speaker says one thing but really means something completely different.
If you call a clumsy basketball player the new Michael Jordan, you are using verbal irony.
The murderer in “Cask of Amontillado” is using verbal irony when he says that Fortunato’s health is “precious.”
Sometimes sarcastic, sometimes not

5. Understatement
The saying of less than one feels the situation would warrant

6. Situational Irony
Situational Irony occurs when there is a contrast between what would seem appropriate and what really happens or when there is a contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really takes place.

7. Paradox
Statement or situation that seems to be a contradiction but reveals a truth. Paradoxes in literature are designed to make readers stop and think
When O. Henry, in Gift of the Magi, refers to the impoverished Della and Jim as “one of the richest couples on earth,” he is stating a paradox.

8. Dramatic Irony
Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know.

9. Ambiguity
An element of uncertainty in a text, in which something can be interpreted in a number of different ways.
Ambiguity adds a level of complexity to a story, for it presents us with a variety of possible interpretations, all of which are valid.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado” is ambiguous because we don’t know if we can trust the narrator’s claims.