What is dramatic irony?

Dramatic Irony is a literary device used particularly in Shakespearean plays. Authors use it to create suspense and tension in the play, seldom times, and also to bring in conflict. Dramatic irony occurs when readers or audiences know more details of the plot than the characters, which gives more power to the readers than the ones taking part in the play. Audiences start speculating the storyline and also start making predictions about the events in the play. For instance, in Act 1 Scene 3 of Macbeth, the witches address Macbeth as the 'Thane of Cawdor'. The readers are aware of this fact already because, in Act 1 Scene 3, Duncan had already decreed Ross to award the title of Thane of Cawdor to Macbeth. 

Dramatic Irony is when the audience or reader know something that the characters don't.

For example, at the end of Romeo & Juliet, we know that Juliet isn't actually dead, but is just pretending to be. However, Romeo doesn't know this! So when he kills himself, it makes it all the more tragic because we know the whole story.

Hi Justice! Dramatic irony is a theatrical term used to define a moment on stage when the audience knows more than one or some of the characters in a scene. An example of this would be in An Inspector Calls, when Arthur Birling is talking about the Titanic being an 'unsinkable' ship. The contemporary audience of the play would have experienced dramatic irony as the play was written AFTER the Titanic famously sank on its maiden voyage. As students of Literature over 100 years later, we also know this!

Dramatic irony is a plot device mainly used in films, plays, novels and short stories. It occurs when the audience or reader (of a movie, play, book etc.) knows something the character doesn’t.

This can be as simple as the ‘Look behind you!’ moment in a children's pantomime (when a character doesn’t know a monster is creeping up on them) or as poignant as the final scene in Romeo and Juliet (when Romeo finds Juliet seemingly dead and kills himself in grief – the irony being that the audience knows she has only taken a sleeping potion).

Dramatic irony is a useful device for creating suspense or humour in a story.

In literature, dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters don't. For example: In the classic myth of Oedipus, Oedipus leaves his family because it has been foretold that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus doesn't know, however, that he was adopted.

Dramatic irony is a literary device usually found in plays, where an author reveals information to the audience but the characters are unaware of this information. An example of this is in Act One of An Inspector Calls when Mr Birling describes the Titanic as 'unsinkable' yet the audience in 1945/6 knows the Titanic sank in 1912.

It's a literary device, whereby the audience or reader has a greater knowledge of what is happening than the characters within a play or narrative.

Hey Justice,

Dramatic Irony is a technique that is commonly used by playwrights and authors to create suspense. It is when something said or done by a character is obvious to the audience or reader but which the character is ignorant to.

Dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of events in a story and the character is not. The famous line in pantomime "He's behind you!" Is an example of dramatic irony

Dramatic irony is a technique used in literature whereby the audience knows something that a character does not. Juliet's death in Romeo and Juliet is an example of this; Romeo kills himself because he believes Juliet is dead, but the audience knows she's simply asleep.

Dramatic irony is a literary technique that suggests to the audience what is coming next, but is unknown to the character - The most famous example of dramatic irony is contained within the film 'Titanic', when the films main protagonist, Rose DeWitt Bukater, leans on the balcony just before the ship hits the iceberg and says ''it's so beautiful I could just die''.

A technique often used in theatre or other media, also sometimes in print. The main feature of such is that the 'audience', reader or consumer is made to know more of what is happening than the character.

Dramatic irony is where the audience knows something that the audience know something that the characters do not. A good example of dramatic irony is in Macbeth displayed here when Macbeth and the lords are awating the arrival of Banquo. We know Macbeth has informatiom in regards to the murder, and we are aware of his actions. Macbeth statement "the general joy o’ the whole table, and to our friend Banquo, whom we miss, would he were here, I to all, and him, we thirst" creates deception. He knows about the murder but awaits his arrival.

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 is a technique that was originally used within plays, but is also used in movies now, where something is known or obvious to the audience but not to the characters within the play. For example, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the audience are told at the beginning of the play from the prologue that a 'pair of star-crossed lovers take their life'. From this the audience now knows that at some point a couple will end up dying but this not known by any characters in the play who think they are all going to live happily ever after. This creates drama throughout the play as the audience do not know when to expect the deaths.