What is dramatic irony?

Dramatic irony is defined as "the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect". It is a literary device often used in text or drama to engage the audience by depicting events which are unknown to the characters themselves.

Dramatic irony is a form of irony. It is both a literary and theatrical device in which the reader or audience knows more than the characters they are following; it is an integral element of storytelling. The characters’ actions have a different meaning for the audience than they do for the actors or characters, and this device often lends itself to tragedy. Remember the first time you read or watched Romeo and Juliet? The tragic ending of this iconic story is an embodiment of dramatic irony: The audience knows that the lovers are each alive, but neither of the lovers knows that the other is still alive. Each drink their poison without knowing what the audience knows.

Dramatic irony describes when the reader knows more about the story or character than the character/s of the story themself.

Dramatic irony is when the audience of a play or story knows something that the characters do not know. For example, when Mr Birling talks about "the Titanic being unsinkable"

Dramatic irony is when the audience or readers know more about a situation than the characters.

Dramatic irony is when something is known to the audience but not to the character. It can be the secret of another character, an event, or information that is shared with the audience but not with the character.

When the audience knows something that a character(s) do not.

Dramatic irony is when you, the reader of the novel or spectator of the play, knows something that the characters do not.

eg In Act 1, Scene 3 of Macbeth, the witches greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor: "By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives."

Macbeth (Act one, Scene three, Line 71-72)

The audience already knows Macbeth has been made Thane of Cawdor by King Duncan because the treacherous Thane of Cawdor has been put to death and Duncan has given the title to Macbeth.

Dramatic irony is when the audience knows what is going on in the play, but the characters on stage do not.

Dramatic irony is when the reader/audience is aware of something occurring in a story or play, but the characters aren’t aware of yet. An example would be in Shakespeare’s play “Othello”. Iago is a character that talks to the audience about his schemes and plans to destroy Othello, and Othello is not aware of this.

When the author employs dramatic irony, the desired effect is humour. Usually because the audience is aware of something that the character is not. For example in An Inspector Calls when Mr Birling declares the Titanic is 'Unsinkable.' As a modern day audience we know the Titanic did sink, and so this is to humour the audience and undermine the character of Birling.

Dramatic irony is a technique used in drama (strange, that!) in which the audience know something that the person on screen/stage does not.

For example, imagine you're watching a film and the main character is walking through the park. We see somebody is following them. The main character hasn't realised they're being followed - but we know! We can't warn them, or tell them what is happening - and this creates tension. That's dramatic irony.

Another example is in Shakespeare - at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo kills himself by taking poison, because he believes Juliet is dead. We, the audience, know she is alive! But we cannot tell Romeo in order to save him, and instead have to watch him die. That's dramatic irony.

This is when the character (usually in a play) doesn't know what's going on, but the audience does.

Dramatic irony is a literary technique that originated from Greek tragedy. Simply put, when a character's/speaker's words are dramatically clear as untrue to the reader/audience whilst being much less obvious or completely unknown to the character/speaker. An example of this could be Mr Birling from Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' stating that the Titanic is "absolutely unsinkable".

Dramatic irony is a situation where the reader (or audience, in drama) has knowledge the characters on stage don't.

A great example from a GCSE text is in 'An Inspector Calls', where (trying to avoid spoilers here) when Mrs Birling tells the Inspector to find and punish the father of Eva Smith's unborn baby. Before she finishes talking, I think most of us know what the punchline will be ...

At A Level, Shakespeare is full of dramatic irony: Othello believes his wife has been unfaithful when we know she hasn't. But my favourite is probably Richard III, where all along we know Richard is a villain, even though he manages to con a lot of characters for large parts of the play.

Which leads me to my final comment on dramatic irony: often writers use it to create a kind of comedy (admittedly it's sometimes dark comedy).