America’s greatest playwrights‚ living or dead‚ is a master of verbal irony. An examination of three strong examples of verbal irony in Millers play‚ The Crucible‚ will prove this out. While Miller started the genre of the tragedy of the common man‚ and is also know for his thoughtful and decisive plot lines‚ much of his fame‚ possibly can be attributed to his brilliant use of language generally‚ and his use of verbal irony in particular. Amidst the drama of the court scene in Act III‚ Proctor
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a child. Through all of Poe’s struggles he has written many stories. Most in which are particularly morbid and full of irony. In Poe’s story The Cask of Amontillado‚ he uses three different types of irony to describe Montresor’s utter most vex towards his friend Fortunato. The types of irony Poe uses are verbal irony‚ situational irony‚ and dramatic irony. Poe uses verbal irony towards Fortunato throughout the short story. Towards the beginning of the story‚ Poe writes‚ “It must be understood
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Chaucer’s Use of Irony in The Canterbury Tales In The Canterbury Tales‚ Geoffrey Chaucer compiles a mixture of stories on a pilgrimage into a figurative depiction of the medieval society in which he lived. Chaucer’s stories have a punch and pizzazz‚ which‚ to an average reader‚ seem uncommon to the typical medieval writer‚ making his story more delightful. Certain things account for this pizzazz‚ especially the author’s use of irony. Many of Chaucer’s characters are ironic in the sense that they
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Irony in “The Gift of the Magi” In The Gift of the Magi‚ O Henry uses irony to place special emphasis on love and sacrifice. O Henry is known for his use of irony in his short stories. Irony is defined as: “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning” (dictionary.com). In The Gift of the Magi‚ O Henry uses verbal‚ situational and dramatic irony to tell his story. The most obvious and prominent type of irony used in The Gift of the Magi was situational irony
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Q: Irony is a device used by playwrights to convey meanings by words whose literal meanings is the opposite. Bring to light the various incidents of irony in the play Macbeth. A: There are two main types of irony employed by Shakespeare in Macbeth. 1. Dramatic Irony: It is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously)‚ thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters
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English 1102‚ 12:30‚ TR September 3‚ 2009 Essay #2 –Fiction Irony in “A Cask of Amontillado” Verbal irony has a meaning (often contradictory) concealed behind the apparent meaning of a word or phrase in order to get a point across; whereas situation irony is often coincidental and contradictory to the situation at hand in an improbable way. Throughout the story “A Cask of Amontillado”‚ Edger Allen Poe uses verbal and situational irony to add a touch of macabre humor‚ build suspense‚ and foreshadow
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Irony is the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising‚ interesting‚or amusing contradictions. 1 Two stories that serve as excellent demonstrations of irony are "The Pardoners Tale" and "The Nun’s Priest’s Tale‚" both from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Although these two stories are very different‚ they both use irony to teach a lesson. Of the stories‚ "The Pardoners Tale" displays the most irony. First and foremost‚ the entire telling of the story is ironic‚ considering
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In the story “The sniper‚” the use of dramatic and situational irony brings out the theme of war knowing no limit. Irony helps the theme of this story by making the reader notice the details that are important in the story. Dramatic irony is shown when the sniper “considers whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. He decided to take the risk.” In this example‚ the sniper takes the risk of smoking and the readers knows that he will be spotted by the enemy. This displays how people tends
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The Pardoner’s Tale: Irony Nearly every aspect of the Pardoner’s tale is ironic. Irony exists within the story itself and in the relationship between the Pardoner and the story. The ending of the story presents a good message despite the Pardoner’s devious intentions to swindle money from the other pilgrims. By using irony in the Pardoner’s tale‚ Chaucer effectively criticizes the church system. The irony begins as soon as the Pardoner starts his prologue. He tells the other pilgrims
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The role of “dramatic irony” is expressed in many ways through the play Macbeth written by Shakespeare.The dramatic irony plays a very important role in this play because it builds up into the theme. The theme of this play would be ambition. Macbeth had the ambition to become king and that’s what he did‚he got what he wanted.¨ I dare do all that may become a man.¨ ( Act 1 Scene 7 Line 51) Macbeth would do anything it takes to be a man. The way that dramatic irony is shown is in the one
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