Name: ___________________________________________
Date: _______________
Period: ____
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something critical to the plot of a story that a
character is unaware of. Dramatic irony creates tension as the audience waits for the truth to be revealed.
An example of dramatic irony is a character planning an elaborate outdoor picnic without recognizing
that the weather forecast calls for torrential rains for the day. Authors also use humor to break tension.
Comic relief introduces a funny character or situation to lighten the mood. A pun is a play on words
that brings humor to dialogue.
DIRECTIONS: Choose the event that provides the best example of dramatic irony.
1. Astronauts on board the Starship Pioneer meet up with ship from planet Zarkon-Alpha. The Zarkonians
invite the astronauts to have coffee with them. The astronauts find Zarkonian coffee to be delicious, but one
thing puzzles them: Zarkonian coffee cups weigh about 20 pounds. Why are the cups so heavy?
What the astronauts don’t know is:
a. The amount of sunlight on Zarkon-Alpha is only a fraction of what it is on Earth.
b. Zarkonians are great athletes and have muscle power that far exceeds the Earthlings.
c. Gravity on Earth is only a fraction of what it is on Zarkon-Alpha.
2. Jasper comes home despondent from his job interview at Wong Corporation. The interview went well but
the people at Wong said they’d call right away if they were going to offer the job. They haven’t called. “Oh
well,” Jasper says. What Jasper doesn’t know is:
a. His phone battery has run down so he couldn’t receive calls. When the phone gets charged, Jasper will see
three voicemails from Wong.
b. There is a voicemail on Jasper’s phone from Darius Industries, Wong’s main rival, asking for information
about the interview.
3. His phone battery has run down so he couldn’t receive calls. When he gets the phone charged, Jasper will
see that he has no voicemails. In Germany at a town hall meeting in 1921 an unpleasant young man stands
up and says hateful things about minority groups who he claims are contaminating Germany with their
unclean ideas about equality and justice. A young woman in the audience sees the speaker as a fool and no
one to worry about. What the young woman doesn’t know is:
a. The speaker will turn out to be Albert Einstein.
b. The speaker will turn out to be Adolf Hitler.
c. The speaker will turn out to be an Academy Award winning actor.
4. A college freshman in 2004 begins to use a social networking site that was created by a fellow student, a
sophomore. In fact, the freshman notices that the network is so useful that it is beginning to spread beyond
the campus. What the freshman doesn’t know is:
a. She herself will turn out to be an Olympic champion in rowing.
b. The social networking site will turn out to be Facebook and become a company worth billions.
c. The sophomore will turn out to be the founder of a chain of highly successful fast food restaurants.