IRONY occurs when there is a difference between what someone says or thinks and what is actually true.
There are 3 different types of Irony
#1 – Verbal Irony
This is when a character says something and means something else.
EXAMPLE
When you are in art class and your friend shows you his picture she has spend the entire hour working on and you say to her, “Nice painting, Picasso.”
You are not paying her a compliment. You do not mean she is as good as Picasso; you are saying that her drawing stinks. This is IRONIC. This is VERBAL IRONY.
#2 – Dramatic Irony
This is when a character believes something to be true, when we (the spectator) know otherwise.
EXAMPLE
In a horror film, we watch the unknowing man looking around the house for the source of a strange noise. We also know that their is a killer lurking in the house. The man does not know that their is a killer. That is IRONIC. That is DRAMATIC IRONY. It is IRONIC because the man thinks he is safe, and we know that he is not.
#3 – Situational Irony
This is when we expect one thing to happen and then something unexpected happens instead.
EXAMPLE
Imagine a film where a thief is trying to break into a bank from the outside alley wall. He spend his time drilling and placing explosives and ends up accidentally breaking into the police station barracks. That is IRONIC. That is SITUATIONAL IRONY. We expected the thief would succeed and be inside a bank, and he ended up being in the last place he would want to break into.
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Imagine the top athlete in the school. He has trained for the state track meet and he is seeded first. He is supposed to win. Everyone spends all week making banners for him and he was even on the local news. During the final stretch of the race and it begins to rain, suddenly, and a freak lightning bolt shots from the sky and into our poor athlete. Needless to say, he loses the race. That is IRONIC. That is SITUATION IRONY.
