The document discusses the three main types of literary irony: situational irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony. Situational irony involves an unexpected or contradictory outcome. Verbal irony occurs when a statement means something different than its literal meaning. Dramatic irony exists when the audience knows something a character does not. Examples are provided to illustrate each type of irony.

1. Three Types of Irony
Dramatic
Verbal
Situational

2. IS IRONY THE OPPOSITE OF
WRINKLY?
Ok, so that is a terrible joke!
But let’s explore what irony really is

3. So what is irony?
• Irony is a literary device in which words are
used to express a contradiction between
appearance and reality— in irony, reality is
usually the opposite of what it seems. In
literature, there are three types of irony:

4. There are three types of IRONY
• Situational
• Verbal
• Dramatic

5. Situational Irony
• Situational irony is when the outcome of a
situation is inconsistent with what we expect
would logically or normally occur.
• In other words, it is the opposite of what we
expect will be or happen.
– An example of situational irony would be if a
thief’s house was broken into at the same time he
was robbing someone’s house.

6. How is this ironic?
This is situational irony.
Why?
It is because we do not
expect to see a fire
hydrant of fire. A fire
hydrant is supposed to put
out fires, not catch on fire!

7. Verbal Irony
• Verbal irony is when a speaker or writer says
one thing but actually means the opposite.
– For example, when your mom walks into your
filthy bedroom and says, “I see you’ve cleaned
your room!” Sarcasm is one type of verbal irony.

8. Wow, I can tell you have really studied
hard for this test!
This is VERBAL IRONY. The teacher
knows he did not study.

9. Dramatic Irony
• Dramatic irony is when the audience or the
reader is aware of something that a character
does not know. For example, when Romeo
believes Juliet is dead, but the audience
knows that she has only been given a potion
to sleep.

10. This is Dramatic Irony
• In Cyrano de Bergerac, the audience
knows that Cyrano, a poet and soldier
with an enormous nose, and passion
to match, loves the beautiful Roxane,
who really loves the handsome but
not so bright cadet Christian. We also
know that Roxane falls in love with
Christian during the famous balcony
scene, but in reality, the words she
falls in love to were those of Cyrano.

11. Why use IRONY?
• Authors use irony to make a point and bring
attention to some important aspect of a story.
• Irony can be both comic and tragic.

12. So let’s look at some examples.
See if you can figure out the
following…

13. There is a rat infestation at the
health department.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

14. Mother: “I see you just ironed your
shirt.”
Son: “Huh? I just dug it out of the
hamper.”
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

15. A person tweets about what a
waste of time Twitter is.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

16. You call your friend to tell them
what beautiful weather you are
having. Five minutes later a
tornado rips through your town.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

17. The Emperor is parading through the
town without any clothes. We know
he is naked, but he thinks he has on a
beautiful suit made of gold.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

18. John sells his fishing pole to buy Sarah
a new chain for her charm for their
anniversary present. But we know
that Sarah sold the charm to buy some
new fishing lures for John.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

19. Frank drove to Washington because he
was afraid of flying on a plane.
However, on the way he was in a
terrible car accident and ended up in
the hospital.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

20. Lori went to the doctor to get her flu
shot to avoid getting sick. While there,
another patient sneezed on her and
she caught a terrible cold.
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

21. Tammy tells her friends. “Jose is such
a loser. You should not date him.”
Later she writes in her diary. “Jose is
so cute. I hope he asks me to prom.”
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:

22. Now let’s practice with a story.
• Do you remember reading “The Necklace” in 9th
grade. Let’s review it.
• I would like you to go to:
http://www.balancepublishing.com/neckstry.htm
• Read the story and then find an example of each
of the types of IRONY. Write the example, then
tell me the type of irony and explain the reason
you think it is that type of irony.

23. Give an example of Irony from
“The Necklace”
• Type of Irony: ____________________
• Explain your reason:
You will send me an example like this for all
Situational, Dramatic, and Verbal Irony.

24. Send me these in a message!