IRONY

Irony:

Verbal Irony:  A device by which a writer expresses a meaning contradictory to the stated or ostensible meaning.  The writer makes it clear that the meaning he intends is the opposite of his literal one.

Dramatic Irony:  When the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in the play or story does not know. It can add to comedic effect and suspense.  Dramatic irony depends upon the structure of the play more than the actual words of the characters. 

Eg.:  In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus seeks the murderer of Laius, only to find at the end of the play that he himself is the murderer.

Situational Irony: When what actually happens is the opposite of what is expected or appropriate.  When there is a discrepancy between the appearance of a situation and the reality that underlies it.

Eg:  Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” contains situational irony:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.