What is dramatic irony?

Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience or reader knows something that the characters in the book, play, etc do not. For instance, a horror film might show a killer going into an empty house, a few moments later the home owner comes back to what they think is just their empty house, but the audience knows that the killer is there.

Dramatic irony is a literary device used for humorous or dramatic purposes - This is where the characters are unaware of something that the audience is aware of.

An example could be: A group of characters in a horror film all sitting around a campfire, where one of them exclaims "I've had this stabbing pain in my back all day, I'm so glad it's gone away!" while the audience is acutely aware of the killer, hiding in the shadows about to inflict another "stabbing pain".

It's in this that dramatic irony is supposed to show the difference in understand of the situations that the characters are in compared to the understanding of the audience, which is often contradictory. In the example above, we could say that dramatic irony has been used to create a sense of dread.

Dramatic Irony is a writing technique used to create tension and suspense for an audience.

In the simplest terms, dramatic irony boils down an inequality of information: someone knows something that someone else doesn't. This can apply either to characters within a text or to the audience/readers.

For example, in Mark Twain's 'The Prince and the Pauper', the dramatic irony comes from the fact that the audience is aware that the two identical boys have swapped identities and are living each other's lives, whereas their families are not. This creates tension for the audience as we hope the boys are not discovered in their plot.

One of the three main types of irony, in where the significance of a characters discourse or actions are known to the audience/ reader, yet which remain unknown to the character.

Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something or some detail that some/all of the actors on the stage don't know about.

It's when the audience can see an event unfold before the character even knows it's going to happen.

A situation in plays where the words and actions are known to the audience but not to the character.

Dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of a particular event or action on stage which has been disclosed by a certain character but the other characters are unaware of this: it is a little like being in on the secret. The audience member, or the reader, is treated to inside information.

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.

A technique in literature whereby the audience or reader is made aware of something in that text that other characters are not. For example, when Romeo thinks Juliet is dead but we, the audience, know she has merely taken a sleeping potion.

Dramatic Irony is a literary device used by an author or a playwright where the reader/audience knows something is going to happen before the characters do. For example, a character on stage might say the line "I'm going to live forever!", but the scene before it could show other characters plotting to kill said character by putting poison in his wine. The audience knows he won't live forever. Shakespeare's plays are full of dramatic irony!

Dramatic irony is a literary device often used in plots of books, plays and films. It describes the situation where the audience (us, the reader) knows more information than some of the characters in the narrative. For example, in Little Red Riding Hood, the audience knows that Red’s “Grandma” is actually the wolf dressed up as her grandma. It created a sense of drama and suspense for the reader/ audience.

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

It is a literary technique to keep the audience engaged that is normally applied in films, books or plays. In which the character is unaware of the scenario but the audience is not. A good exmaple of dramatic irony can be seen in William Shakespeare's plays A Midsomer Nights Dream , Othello and Romeo and Juliet.

Dramatic irony is a literary technique where it is clear to the audience or the reader what the character is saying or doing by it is unknown to the other characters