Irony
The contrast or discrepancy
between appearances and
reality, between what is
expected and the outcome.
Verbal Irony
Verbal irony is a disparity of
expression and intention: when
a speaker says one thing but
means another, or when a
literal meaning is contrary to its
intended effect. An example of
this is sarcasm.
Verbal Irony
We hear verbal irony in conversations
all the time. The simple comment, "Oh
Great" after something rotten happens
is verbal irony. Verbal irony is by far the
most accessible, far-reaching, and
heavily utilized form of irony (and also
of sarcastic humor) because it is its
simplest form - it just involves the
equation of two people talking to one
another.
Verbal Irony

A person says one thing and means another (sarcasm)
Scar explains that a
secret surprise for
Simba is "To DIE
for".
The irony being
that the surprise is
a stampede of
wildebeast meant
to kill Simba.
Verbal
Irony
An outcome that turns
out to be if not the
opposite, at least
completely different
than the expected.
Situational
Irony
After Gus Grissom's first flight into space, the hatch
on his spacecraft accidentally blew off while Grissom
was waiting for a rescue helicopter, causing the
capsule to fill with ocean water and sink and Grissom
to nearly drown. The hatch system was re-designed to
prevent similar accidents. while training for his third
spaceflight, a fire broke out inside Grissom's
spacecraft, The hatch redesign triggered by the
accident with Grissom's first spacecraft, meant to help
save astronaut's lives, prevented Grissom from being
rescued in the subsequent fire accident.
Situational Irony
After breaking a date with your girlfriend so
you can go to the ball game with the guys.
Who do you run into at the concession
stand? Your girlfriend with another guy
from math class.
After burning the midnight oil, staying up
all night studying for a test. Lo and behold
the test is actually scheduled for next
week.
Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony
Occurs when the audience knows something
that the characters do not.
Examples
- In slasher movies, when the audience know what’s
around the corner, but the poor babysitter doesn’t.
- In Romeo & Juliet, when Romeo drinks the poison
because he thinks Juliet is dead, but the audience knows
that she is only asleep.
Cosmic Irony
Cosmic Irony: the idea that fate, destiny, or a god
controls and toys with human hopes and
expectations; also, the belief that the universe is so
large and man is so small that the universe is
indifferent to the plight of man; sometimes called
irony of fate.
Importing Cane Toads to Australia to protect the
environment only to create worse environmental problems
for Australia.
Several inventors were killed by their own creations,
including William Nelson, Alexander Bogdanov, William
Bullock, Otto Lilienthal, and Thomas Midgley.
Cosmic Irony
The expression “irony of fate”
stems from the notion that the
gods are amusing themselves by
toying with the minds of mortals.
Closely connected with situational
irony, it arises from sharp
contrasts between reality and
human ideals.
In O. Henry's story The Gift of the Magi, a young couple are
too poor to buy each other Christmas gifts. The wife cuts
off her treasured hair and sells it to a wig-maker buy her
husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She's
shocked when she learns he had pawned his watch to buy
her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair.
Romantic Irony
A mode of dramatic or
narrative writing in
which the author
builds up artistic
illusions, only to
break it down by
revealing that the
author, as artist is the
arbitrary creator and
manipulator of the
characters and their
actions.
Romantic Irony
In “Don
Juan”, the
author Byron
claims to be
writing a
realistic
story but at
one point
admits that
he got the
idea from a
puppet show.