What is dramatic irony?

Dramatic irony is when the audience know something that the characters they are watching don't know - for example, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, we know that Juliet is alive when Romeo thinks she's dead.

Hello! Dramatic irony is a literary technique used by many famous playwrights such as Priestley and Shakespeare. It is officially defined as when an audience knows more than the characters on stage.

Dramatic irony is a literary technique whereby the audience or reader knows or understands something about a character's words or actions when the character themselves does not. Essentially, the audience is in the know and the character isn't. For example, in the film Snow White, we know that the evil queen is plotting to kill her using a poisonous apple but Snow White herself does not know this.

Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience/reader knows something that the character does not. An example of this is when in An Inspector Calls, Mr Birling says the Titanic is 'absolutely unsinkable'. This is Dramatic irony as we, as an audience are aware that the Titanic does in fact sink.

Hi Justice,

Dramatic irony is where you as a reader/audience are aware of information that the character/characters are unaware of. For example, in Othello, the audience is aware of Iago's hatred towards the protagonist Othello however, Othello is completely naive to this and sees Iago as an entrusted friend. In essence, using this technique adds suspense amongst the audience.

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.

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.

When the audience know something that the characters on the stage do not.

Hi there! Dramatic irony is a literary device used in many of the current GCSE English fiction texts whereby a character will say or do something that to us is clear, but to them is not. An example of this could be someone muttering "I hate you" to somebody under their breath, but the character that the speech was directed to not hearing clearly.

It is a technique whereby the characters aren’t aware of what lies ahead but the audience or reader is.

In simple terms, dramatic irony is an expression used to represent the opposite.

For example, in An Inspector Calls, Mr Birling praises the greatness of the Titanic, but ironically it sank. Or when a girl hides in a closet in a horror movie, and the audience knows the killer will open the closet door.

Dramatic irony is when the reader is aware of something that the audience is not. For example, Lady Macbeth believes that 'a little water clears us of this deed', yet at the denouement she goes insane and commits suicide- she is not as malevolent/evil as she believes.

Mr Birling in an 'An Inspector Calls' believes that the Titanic is 'absolutely unsinkable.' Here Priestley highlights his arrogance as the ship does indeed sink.

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.