Shakespeare uses irony to great effect in his many plays, specifically dramatic irony, and some cosmic irony, in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. But why does he use it? What is he trying to achieve or portray? It varies throughout the play, but there are general trends as the story develops. In the beginning we see that it is almost comical uses. The irony then develops into more interesting and intriguing uses meant to keep the audience, especially the groundlings, interested and wanting more. And then finally, he uses dramatic irony to point out some of the reasons why this is a tragedy during and before the climax.
In the beginning you see irony without much apparent consequence, which can be seen as amusing in some views and helped to draw people in. Some examples of this would be Romeo and Juliet talks to each other and fall in ?love? before realizing that their parents apparently hate each other. Another example is when Juliet?s nurse comes to talk to Romeo about Juliet, and the friends of Romeo mock her thinking her another stranger. Both of these and other ironies in the opening acts are meant to be entertaining and to keep the groundlings happy, along with other factors, while at the same time setting the stage for the play to become a tragedy, and slowly starting to shift to a more depth as the play progresses.
In the center, specifically act three you see the use of irony to be more serious, often trying to lightly foreshadow and keep the audience interested. From Tybalt aggravating Mercutio and then Romeo with his death, after Romeo seemingly feels and professes ?love? for him due to his very recent secret marriage to Tybalt?s cousin, Juliet. Shortly after Tybalt?s death Romeo is banished due to his, a...
... middle of paper ...
...e party, to Romeo killing Tybalt right after marrying his cousin and talking about his love for Tybalt, to Laurence?s message about the plan being delayed due to a cruel twist of fate. Not only does Shakespeare use cosmic irony in this play, he makes the characters, especially Romeo again, put their faith in the gods who then appear to betray him with a list of unlucky coincidences that help lead to his downfall.
The use of irony has a great effect on the plot and characters in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare managed to use dramatic irony for various purposes throughout the play that drastically help the build up of conflict, tension, and emotions. His use of cosmic irony after the protagonists put faith in fate adds a cruel twist into the story that helps to enrich the play and develop the characters. It is amazing how he manages to merge it all into the play.
Dramatic irony means that the audience knows something that the character in the piece of literature doesn’t know. In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows the ending at the very beginning, but still watches Romeo and Juliet fall in love and get married. Eventually, they both kill themselves thinking the other is dead. Suspense relies on dramatic irony because it makes the audience feel tense until the character finds out and the tension is relieved. Suspense also relies on dramatic irony because the audience may learn something the character doesn’t know, making the audience want to tell the characters themselves, knowing fully well that that’s impossible. An example of dramatic irony in Cujo is the car that Donna drives. Donna drives a Pinto which is known as one of the worst cars to ever have existed. The Ford Pinto would explode and had to be recalled. The Pinto in this story, however, saved Donna and Tad from being killed by Cujo. The audience knew that the Pinto was a bad car, but if they were reading the book, they would have realized that there were too many pages left for both of them to die. Also, if they had read this excerpt, they would have thought that StudySync wouldn’t’ve ruined the ending of a story written by Stephen King. Another example of dramatic irony is that Cujo had rabies. In the very beginning of the story, not the excerpt, Cujo gets bitten by a bat. In the excerpt, this can be figured out by how
This is also an example of dramatic irony; the audience knows what is on the way. making the story even sadder for them. In Act 2 Scene 2, Romeo is talking about the possibility of being caught in the Capulet grounds in a very relaxed and romantic manner. My life was better ended by their hateâ€. This is an example of dramatic irony Romeo is talking about being.
In Sophocles: The Theban Plays E. F. Watling comments on Sophocles’ usage of dramatic irony in his dramas: “. . . that powerful and subtle weapon of ‘dramatic irony’ which Sophocles used with especial skill, whereby the audience can judge every speech and action of the play in the light of their previous knowledge of the situation” (12). M. H. Abrams defines dramatic irony as a situation wherein:
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "dramatic irony (literature)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .
One example of expertly used irony is when Hamlet is talking to his mother when he hears a noise behind the curtains, so he stabs the figure behind the tapestries thinking it is Claudius, “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!” (3, 4, 24), only to find out it is Polonius. This irony can be interpreted as dramatic irony, because the audience knows Polonius is behind the curtains while Hamlet does not. It can also be interpreted as situational irony, because Hamlet suspects that the person spying on him is Claudius. Wanting to avenge his father, he stabs him through the curtain but it turned out to be Polonius. Doing this initiates a chain of events that lead to his tragic death. Another prime example of irony increasing the enjoyment of the readers for the past 400 years is when Laertes is killed by his own poisoned sword. When Osric asks Laertes how he is doing right after he was scratched with his own sword, Laertes responds, “Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. I am justly killed with mine own treachery.” (5, 2, 308-309). It is quite ironic that Laertes is murdered by his own plan. One would expect Laertes to draw first blood as he is a better skilled swordsman than Hamlet. However, he dies by poison first because the sword that was intended to kill Hamlet was used on him; this is situational irony. Irony brings a greater depth to the story.
In both A Streetcar Named Desire and Hamlet, Tennessee Williams and William Shakespeare, respectively, demonstrate their abilities to create engaging plays which work on several levels in order to produce the desired effect. One of the most important characteristics of these plays is the playwrights' success in using their words to create the worlds surrounding their works. Both Shakespeare and Williams effectively use irony in the aforementioned plays, both in the plot and with specific symbolism, to create mildly existential environments where effective irony is a confirmation of fate and justice. Immediately apparent to the reader upon completion of these two works is the glaring appearance of irony in the plays' plots. For example, in A Streetcar Named Desire, a great deal of dramatic irony is created when the audience is made aware of details that characters are ignorant to.
In the play Othello, Shakespeare uses many literary devices to help the reader understand the theme of the story. One of those many literary devices used in the play, is the wide range of irony. Throughout the pages of the book the reader will see the use of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony. Shakespeare does not use irony in an understated way, it is very direct, and can be found on almost every page of the book. The use of irony creates suspense, and adds interest as to what will happen.
... and ambiguity. Shakespeare uses the ironies found in the play so that we will remember his play's limits. It cannot produce an ideal, nor can we as an audience.
Sophocles’s Antigone uses irony in it to show the quality of characters like Creon and Antigone. Irony was used to bring out the true character in each person in his plays. Sophocles uses irony many times with Creon and Antigone to show who they really were. Sophocles purpose with portraying irony in his writing was to show Antigone as rude and blunt, and to show Creon as prideful and sexist.
Dramatic irony is used through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s return. His death had brought her such great sorrow but upon his return she died. Her death then created sorrier bringing in the irony of the beginning of the story where it was said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart was bad and she was tried not to be stressed.
Through the combination of the two different types of irony, Shakespeare wasn’t only able to deliver his message, but was also successful in creating a comedy out of it at the same time. By using situational irony, he was able to create plot twists for the audience and make things more interesting. While dramatic irony was used mainly to create a comedic effect for the play. When combined, Shakespeare was able to deliver his message while making a point out of it looking from his perspective. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. ” (Pg.
One example of dramatic irony is when Oedipus is looking for the killer of the king Laius-his father. The irony here is that he is looking for himself because he is the murder of his father. Oedipus knows that he killed someone, but what he does not know is that it was Laius, the one he murder. Oedipus wants to punish the person who killed Laius, but we, the audience know that Oedipus was the one who killed Laius. Also Oedipus married Jocasta without knowing that she is his mother. We, the audience knew that he was Jocasta's son, but he was unaware of that.
nbsp;   ; Humour plays a very significant part in the play as it allows Shakespeare creates a lot of contrasts and moods, as and when he wants to. In Romeo and Juliet, humour occurs in three forms. The first being, humour. by the use of puns, irony and jokes.
This causes much of the dramatic irony in the play, which allows the theme of the play to come together as a
One example of tragic irony that exists in this play is found in Act 1, Scene 1. In this example, Dr. Faustus is reading various books about philosophy and religion. Upon this, he decides that he would join himself with Valdes and Cornelius, two men who have sold their souls to Lucifer. In this scene, he quotes,