There are many examples of irony in “The Pardoner’s Tale”. There are three different kinds of irony. The different ironies are verbal, dramatic, and situational irony. Not only does “The Pardoner’s Tale” give us examples of irony, but blasphemy is also present in the story.
An example of verbal irony is when the youngest rioter says he wants to kill some rats so he goes to an apothecary. This is an example of verbal irony because the reader assumes that he is actually is talking about rats, but that assumption is wrong. Those “rats” he wants to kill are actually the other two rioters. This is verbal irony because the young rioter says one thing but means another.
An example of dramatic irony is when the old man tells the rioters will find death.
The first example of situational irony would be Fortunato’s name, which means fortunate in Italian, an ironic name for someone who is about to be left in the catacombs to die. Another example of irony is when Montresor says, “It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation” (Poe, 3). Obviously this is dramatic irony as Fortunato has no idea that Montresor is smiling because he will kill him rather than actually being happy to meet him. Also verbal irony is present when Montresor says,
The Pardoner has many other examples of irony just waiting to show up to the readers. The Pardoner's next example of irony is situational irony. The reader is originally told a story about three men searching for a man named death. Readers seem to forget all about the part of the story when these young men find the gold. At this point the story took a sure twist up until all of the young men are dead. When this happens Chaucer goes back “Thus these two murderers received their due,/So did the the treacherous young poisoner too” (294-5). The “due” in this case is death. When this occurs the reader will most likely remember that death was what these young men were searching from the beginning for, the reader would assume that the quest to find this assassin would be a wild goose chase, the young men did indeed find what they where looking for. The Pardoner has one more form of irony in store for his listeners. The final example of irony from the Pardoner is dramatic irony. To let his audience know that these three young men are doomed to death before they have the slightest idea Chaucer uses foreshadowing. The best example of foreshadowing is the old man that they meet on the road to find Death. The old man give several clues to his identity such as “One who would change his youth to have my age/And so my age is mine and must be still” (121-2). The reader easily mistakes the old man as looking for an exchange of youth and old age when in
Irony is a very big part of a story, because it can create new elements in a story. Some of these elements may include humor and theme. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a great example for this.
In the “Story of an Hour” we observe many instances in which irony takes place.
In the novel ‘’Night’’ Eliezer survives from Auschwitz and surprisingly almost dies from food poisoning.The irony in this is that he could of died many ways at Auschwitz but ultimately almost dies from food poisoning.That is also a form of situational irony meaning that the situation turns opposite of what you expect.Another example of situational irony in’’Night’’ is when Chlomo Wiesel makes a remark about the yellow Jewish star,mocking it by asking if its lethal,but wearing the yellow star is what kills him in the story.In this essay I’ll be giving you more three more examples of irony throughout the novel ‘’Night’’.
Irony is used in many different types of texts for the purpose of teaching us a lesson. We experience irony in our lives through our own encounters as well as through texts and media. There are three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. Each type has a way of teaching us an important lesson, although some are more common than others. In the Poem “The Old Man’s Lazy” by Peter Blue Cloud, irony is used throughout the text, allowing us to learn from the characters’ mistakes.
Irony is described by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result”. “Ransom of the Red Chief”, as short story written by O. Henry, is full of all types of irony. In this short story a boy, Johnny Dorset, is taken by two kidnappers, Sam and Bill. Ironically, by the end of the story it is the kidnappers who pay ransom to the father. In “Ransom of the Red Chief”, there are many examples of irony which help to enhance the story. Throughout this tale, there are multiple examples of situational, dramatic, and verbal irony.
In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe uses several examples of verbal irony. Verbal irony is when one character says something but actually means something different. One example is on page 288 when Montresor says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day.” This is verbal irony because he does not really mean that he is looking well, and this sentence starts the ensuing parts of Montresor luring the intoxicated Fortunato into the catacombs, which begins the start of the suspenseful reader waiting to see if Montresor will fulfill his mission.. Another example in the story of verbal irony is on page 289 when Fortunato has the cough, and Montresor insists on going back, saying that his health is precious, when he really means that he wants his health to decline and for him to die. “We will go back; your health is
There are good examples of verbal and situational irony in Elsie Wiesel's memoir Night. Verbal irony occurs when words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant. It is grimly ironic when, after the Jews are ordered to wear yellow stars, Elise’s father says, "The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don't die of it..." The statement is ironic because that is precisely how Elise’s father died. The wearing of the yellow star was one step on the path to the concentration camps and almost certain death. After almost a year in the camps, Elise’s father dies from dysentery at Buchenwald.
There are three main types of irony to familiarize yourself with: dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony. Firstly, lets start off with situational irony. Situational irony occurs when the expected outcome does not happen. Situational irony is used in stories to add humorous effects. For example, in the Most Dangerous Game, when Zaroff, the man who hunts people for entertainment, tells Rainsford, the unwilling victim of Zaroff, “We’ll visit my training school… It’s in the cellar. I have about a dozen pupils down there right now” (PG). Basically, Zaroff is not referring to a training school, he is referring to a prison where he keeps his unwilling victims who will eventually be hunted. This quotation shows how dramatic irony affects the tone and the
Throughout the story, “The Open Window”, there are many examples of irony. Irony can be funny, serious, or even scary. There are three types of irony; which are; situational, dramatic, and verbal. Situational is what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Dramatic is when the audience know more about something that is happening than the character does. Finally, verbal is the use of words meaning something different than what they actually mean.
Verbal Irony is when words express something opposite of what is truthfully meant. The first example of verbal irony is whenever her husbands cooks a simple meal she shouts, "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?" This is irony because she acts as if she’s happy with the stew when she actually not. Instead as she says this she’s daydreaming of delicacies and a surrounding a higher class filled with silver and dishes upper class worthy. The second occurrence is when Madame Loisel husband comes home with an invitation to the ball and she calmly say, “ I have no dress and so I can't go to this party. Give your invitation to a friend whose wife has better clothes than I do."The reason this is verbal irony is because she makes it seem as if she does not want to go the party when in all actuality she’s trying to get him to buy her a dress for her to go. This is obviously put emphasis on by the way she cries then stops quickly before she makes her calmly toned statement ,which was in a way throwing a tantrum. in this example she’s being sarcastic again because she does not wish for her companion to give the invitation
Imagine being branded and thinking nothing of it, where the brand is later used to designate you as a target, leading to death. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, there’s a fair amount of irony incorporated. Three examples of irony found in the text are the uses of gold stars to mark Jews and how Chlomo thought nothing of them, how the Jews originally thought of the forced evacuation to Auschwitz, and Madame Schacters speaking of fire. One example of irony, in this case being dramatic irony, is how the Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, branding them as Jewish. Most people, including Chlomo, thought that there was nothing wrong with wearing a star.
The irony of the Pardoner is based on his hypocritical actions. The fact that he does not care about the souls of those he has tricked, says a lot about his character. Near the end of his tale, the friends begin to reveal their true personality. All three of them turn on each other trying to steal the treasure for themselves. All of the trust, which they had promised, was a lie and no loyalty remained. The supposed faithful “friends” display their true cruelty and expose their hypocrisy in relation to the Pardoner's character.
Dramatic irony is generally defined as irony in which a character kens less about his or her situation than the reader kens, engendering situations that have a different outcome from the character’s prospects. It is as if we are visually examining a train moving relentlessly toward a brick wall, which one or more characters perceive as an open tunnel. A wreck is the only outcome. Poe establishes the framework of dramatic irony as early as the story’s second paragraph, engendering a web of erroneous prospects for his victim. For example: “It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given [Fortunato] cause to doubt my good-will.