Examples Of Dramatic Irony In The Possibility Of Evil

“The Possibility of Evil”, is a story written by Shirley Jackson, which includes many examples of irony within the short story. It contains three types of irony. They include Dramatic, Verbal, and Situational Irony. The definition of irony as a whole is language which usually means the opposite for a humorous or emphatic effect. It can be when the reader knows more than the characters, a person says something and they really mean the opposite, or the story goes another way than intended. All of these in some way or another produce suspense.
In the story there were types of irony. For instance, on page 36, “The third caught on the edge and fell outside, onto the ground at Miss Strangeworth’s feet. She didn’t notice…”, This is an example of dramatic irony because the reader knows that it fell and Miss Strangeworth had no idea. It creates suspense in the book because we know what’s going to happen, but the character, Miss Strangeworth, doesn’t. It gives you something to worry about because you know something bad is going to happen and you can’t do anything about it.
It shows that we know that the envelope is most likely something that the Cranes or someone else mad at Miss Strangeworth gave to her to disapprove of her letter. They knew that she was sending the letters because the Harris boy delivered the message to the Cranes and probably said it was from her. It builds suspense because we know that it is going to be a bad letter, but we don’t know what it is going to be exactly. It also will surprise her that it is a revenge note which will give it a boost in