Use of Irony- Enhancement By Janice Lai A story is comprised of literary elements and literary devices. The basic literary elements of a story are setting‚ character‚ conflict‚ point of view‚ plot and theme. A story must have all these elements in order to become a fully developed story. Aside from these elements‚ writers often use literary devices to enhance the story‚ perhaps making the story more popular. Irony‚ a statement meaning the opposite of what is written literally when taken in context
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Irony is the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising‚ interesting‚ or amusing contradictions. Two stories from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that serve as excellent demonstrations of irony are "The Pardoners Tale" and "The Nun’s Priest’s Tale." Although these two stories are very different‚ they both use irony to teach a lesson. In "The Pardoner’s Tale‚ the Pardoner uses his story to speak out against many social problems‚ all of which he is guilty of. He preaches about
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trying to understand it. By examining Sophocles’ use of irony‚ we can see that Oedipus’s fatal flaw is blindness to his own truth. Sophocles’ makes Oedipus’s intelligence visible to us as he solves the Sphinx riddle but unfortunately‚ Oedipus demonstrates to be book smart but not street smart. It is stated by Teiresias he tells Oedipus "Listen to me. You mock my blindness do you? But I say you‚ with both your eyes‚ are blind‚" (page 13). Irony is illustrated in this quote because Teiresias‚ who
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Both “The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi” have plots that depend in large measure on the use of situational irony to create a surprise ending. “The Necklace” tells the story of Madame Mathilde Loise‚ a lowly clerk’s wife‚ who‚ in an effort to appear more debonaire than she is‚ borrows expensive jewels from Madame Jeanne Forestier‚ a wealthy friend. After the inevitable loss of the jewels‚ Madame Loisel and her husband secretly replace the jewels. Years later‚ Madame Loise‚ now impoverished
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A white crow Flannery O’Connor was a devout Catholic on the protestant south. All her life she was a white crow‚ the rest of her life she was diagnosed by lupus and has spent on the farm in Georgia with her mother. Religion was a huge part of her life besides writing‚ O’Connor gave lectures on faith and literature about her religion and once she said: “I feel that if I were not a Catholic I would have no reason to write‚ no reason to see‚ no reason ever to feel horrified or even to enjoy anything
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Irony in “The Storm” The use of Irony in Kate Chopin’s “The Storm”‚ is used through the plot of this story in several situations. Calixta four-year-old child‚ Bibi‚ was calm and kept his composer through the storm‚ he laid his little hand on his father’s knee and was not afraid compared to an adult‚ Calixta‚ who is about to lose all control due to her inner fear. The author also hides the immoral behavior of her characters behind the fear of the storm or lack of. In this story Chopin tries to
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In Mark Twain’s‚ “The Lowest Animal”‚ he uses Situation irony‚ Hyperbole‚ And Juxtaposition to convey that animals are actually more civilized than human beings because they lack these characteristics. Twain uses Situation irony the difference of expectation and reality. In paragraph 171-189‚ it talks about putting different types of animals in a cage together to see what would happen when they’re left alone. The different animals learned how to get along. But when putting different type of people
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William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is about a young couple from opposing families forbidden love to marry in secret. There is much suspense as the story unfolds and leads to a tragic ending. One device used to create suspense in the dramatic irony that keeps the audience on edge. In Romeo and Juliet ‚ the author William Shakespeare has a way‚ of using his words to make the audience interested. This funky wordplay is called dramatic irony.For instance‚ in Act 4 scene 5 line #15‚ they all
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opening scene has a twisted shocking ending‚ as the lottery in the story does not involve winning a prize‚ but losing a life. Irony is an underlying theme that is used throughout the story. Irony is referring to a person‚ situation‚ or circumstance that is different than it would actually seem. Jackson led the reader to interpret the story in different way through his use of an ironic title “The Lottery” that many people knows as winning a prize or millions of dollars. However‚ the lottery
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Irony is a form of linguistic ambiguity achieved through textual‚ grammatical‚ and textual manipulation. Defined simply‚ irony is “the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite‚ typically for humorous or emphatic effect” (OED Online). Seeing as this is clearly a violation of Quality‚ one of Grice’s maxims‚ it can be presumed that in most cases of irony speakers tend to violate one or some of Grice’s four maxims underneath the Cooperative Principle: Quantity
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