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Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.

Irony can be categorized into different types, including ''verbal irony'', ''dramatic irony'', and ''situational irony''. Verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, used in sarcasm, and some forms of litotes can emphasize one's meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.

Definitions

Henry Watson Fowler, in ''The King's English'', says, "any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same." Also, Eric Partridge, in '' Usage and Abusage'', writes that "Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant."

The use of irony may require the concept of a ''double audience''. Fowler's ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' says:

Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders' incomprehension.Fowler, H. W., ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'', 1926.

The term is sometimes used as a synonym for ''incongruous'' and applied to "every trivial oddity" in situations where there is no double audience. An example of such usage is:

Sullivan, whose real interest was, ironically, serious music, which he composed with varying degrees of success, achieved fame for his comic opera scores rather than for his more earnest efforts.

The ''American Heritage Dictionary'' secondary meaning for ''irony'': "incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs". This sense, however, is not synonymous with "incongruous" but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony ''not only'' that incongruity is present ''but also'' that the incongruity must reveal some aspect of human vanity or folly. Thus the majority of ''American Heritage Dictionarys usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ''ironic'' to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly."

On this aspect, ''The Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') has also:

Douglas C. Muecke identifies three basic features of all irony. First, irony depends on a double-layered or two-story phenomenon for success. "At the lower level is the situation either as it appears to the victim of irony (where there is a victim) or as it is deceptively presented by the ironist." The upper level is the situation as it appears to the reader or the ironist. Second, the ironist exploits a contradiction, incongruity, or incompatibility between the two levels. Third, irony plays upon the innocence of a character or victim. "Either a victim is confidently unaware of the very possibility of there being an upper level or point of view that invalidates his own, or an ironist pretends not to be aware of it."

Etymology

According to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'':

According to Richard Whately:

The word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ''ironie''. It derives from the Latin ''ironia'' and ultimately from the Greek ''εἰρωνεία'' eirōneía, meaning 'dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected'.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', "irony" entry.

Typology

''The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'' distinguishes between the following types of irony:Preminger, A. & Brogan, T. V. F. Brogan,
''The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', MJF Books, 1993, , pp. 633–635.
*''Classical irony'': Referring to the origins of irony in Ancient Greek comedy, and the way classical and medieval rhetoricians delineated the term.
*''Romantic irony'': A self-aware and self-critical form of fiction.
*''Cosmic irony'': A contrast between the absolute and the relative, the general and the individual, which Hegel expressed by the phrase, "general ronyof the world."
*''Verbal irony'': A contradiction between a statement's stated and intended meaning
*''Situational irony'': The disparity of intention and result; when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect.
*''Dramatic irony'' and ''tragic irony'': A disparity of awareness between an actor and an observer: when words and actions possess significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not. It is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of which the audience is aware. In tragic irony, the audience knows the character is making a mistake, even as the character is making it.
*''Meta irony'': When an ironic or sarcastic joke is presented through an ironic lens, or "being ironic about being ironic" and even meta ironic statements are ironicised.

Verbal irony

According to ''A glossary of literary terms'' by Abrams and Harpham,

''Verbal irony'' is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed. An ironic statement usually involves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in the overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different, and often opposite, attitude or evaluation.

Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is produced ''intentionally'' by speakers. For instance, if a man exclaims, "I'm not upset!" but reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim he's not upset, it would not be verbal irony by virtue of its verbal manifestation (it would, however, be situational irony). But if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony—speakers communicate implied propositions that are intentionally contradictory to the propositions contained in the words themselves. There are, however, examples of verbal irony that do not rely on saying the opposite of what one means, and there are cases where all the traditional criteria of irony exist and the utterance is not ironic.

In a clear example from literature, in Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'', Mark Antony's speech after the assassination of Caesar appears to praise the assassins, particularly Brutus ("But Brutus says he was ambitious; / And Brutus is an honourable man"), while actually condemning them. "We're left in no doubt as to who's ambitious and who's honourable. The literal truth of what's written clashes with the perceived truth of what's meant to revealing effect, which is irony in a nutshell".

Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite of what they mean.

Sarcasm

A fair amount of confusion has surrounded the issue of the relationship between verbal irony and sarcasm.

Fowler's ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926; reprinted to at least 2015) states:

Sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony and irony has often no touch of sarcasm.

This suggests that the two concepts are linked but may be considered separately. ''The Oxford English Dictionary'''s entry for sarcasm does not mention irony, but the irony entry includes:

The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has "Non-literary irony is often called sarcasm"; while the ''Webster's Dictionary'' entry is:

Partridge in '' Usage and Abusage'' (1997) would separate the two forms of speech completely:

Irony must not be confused with sarcasm, which is direct: sarcasm means precisely what it says, but in a sharp, caustic, ... manner.

The psychologist Rod A. Martin, in ''The Psychology of Humour'' (2007), is quite clear that irony is where "the literal meaning is opposite to the intended" and sarcasm is "aggressive humor that pokes fun". He has the following examples: for irony he uses the statement "What a nice day" when it is raining. For sarcasm, he cites Winston Churchill, who is supposed to have said, when told by Bessie Braddock that he was drunk, "But I shall be sober in the morning, and you will still be ugly", as being sarcastic, while not saying the opposite of what is intended.

Psychology researchers Lee and Katz have addressed the issue directly. They found that ridicule is an important aspect of sarcasm, but not of verbal irony in general. By this account, sarcasm is a particular kind of personal criticism levelled against a person or group of persons that incorporates verbal irony. For example, a woman reports to her friend that rather than going to a medical doctor to treat her cancer, she has decided to see a spiritual healer instead. In response her friend says sarcastically, "Oh, brilliant, what an ingenious idea, that's really going to cure you." The friend could have also replied with any number of ironic expressions that should not be labeled as sarcasm exactly, but still have many shared elements with sarcasm.

Most instances of verbal irony are labeled by research subjects as sarcastic, suggesting that the term ''sarcasm'' is more widely used than its technical definition suggests it should be. Some psycholinguistic theorists suggest that sarcasm, hyperbole, understatement, rhetorical questions, double entendre and jocularity should all be considered forms of verbal irony. The differences between these rhetorical devices ( tropes) can be quite subtle and relate to typical emotional reactions of listeners, and the goals of the speakers. Regardless of the various ways theorists categorize figurative language types, people in conversation who are attempting to interpret speaker intentions and discourse goals do not generally identify the kinds of tropes used.

Echoic allusion

Echoic allusion is the main component involved in conveying verbally ironic meaning. It is best described as a speech act by which the speaker simultaneously represents a thought, belief or idea, and implicitly attributes this idea to someone else who is wrong or deluded. In this way, the speaker intentionally dissociates themselves from the idea and conveys their tacit dissent, thereby providing a different meaning to their utterance. In some cases, the speaker can provide stronger dissociation from the represented thought by also implying derision toward the idea or outwardly making fun of the person or people they attribute it to.

Echoic allusion, like other forms of verbal irony, relies on semantically disambiguating cues to be interpreted correctly. These cues often come in the form of paralinguistic markers such as prosody, tone, or pitch, as well as nonverbal cues like hand gesture, facial expression and eye gaze.

Dramatic irony

Dramatic irony exploits the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters. Connop Thirlwall in his 1833 article ''On the Irony of Sophocles'' originally highlighted the role of irony in drama. ''The Oxford English Dictionary'' defines dramatic irony as:

According to Stanton, dramatic irony has three stages—installation, exploitation, and resolution (often also called preparation, suspension, and resolution)
—producing dramatic conflict in what one character relies or appears to rely upon, the ''contrary'' of which is known by observers (especially the audience; sometimes to other characters within the drama) to be true. In summary, it means that the reader/watcher/listener knows something that one or more of the characters in the piece is not aware of.

For example:
* In '' Macbeth'', upon arriving at Macbeth's castle, Duncan observes, "This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses." The audience knows that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have been plotting Duncan's murder.
* In '' City Lights'', the audience knows that Charlie Chaplin's character is not a millionaire, but the blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) believes him to be rich.
* In ''North by Northwest'', the audience knows that Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is not Kaplan; Vandamm ( James Mason) and his accomplices do not. The audience also knows that Kaplan is a fictitious agent invented by the CIA; Roger (initially) and Vandamm (throughout) do not.
* In '' Othello'', the audience knows that Desdemona has remained faithful to Othello, but Othello does not. The audience also knows that Iago is scheming to bring about Othello's downfall, a fact hidden from Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Roderigo.
* In "The Cask of Amontillado", the reader knows that Montresor is planning on murdering Fortunato, while Fortunato believes they are friends.
* In ''The Truman Show'', the viewer realizes that Truman is on a television show, but Truman himself only gradually learns this.
* During the 1960 U.S. presidential election, an older woman reportedly teased John F. Kennedy at a campaign event for pursuing the presidency despite his relative youth, saying "Young man, it's too soon." Kennedy had been diagnosed with Addison's disease in 1947 – with the attending physician estimating that he would not live for another year – in addition to suffering from multiple other chronic medical conditions that required as many as a dozen daily medications by the time of his presidency which were not publicly disclosed (or acknowledged, in the case of the Addison's diagnosis) until after his death. Kennedy responded to the older woman by saying, "No, ma'am. This is my time."

Tragic irony

Tragic irony is a special category of dramatic irony. In tragic irony, the words and actions of the characters contradict the real situation, which the spectators fully realize. ''The Oxford English Dictionary'' defines this as:

Ancient Greek drama was especially characterized by tragic irony because the audiences were so familiar with the legends that most of the plays dramatized. Sophocles' '' Oedipus Rex'' provides a classic example of tragic irony at its fullest. Claire Colebrook writes:

Further, Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused, not knowing that the murderer he has cursed and vowed to find is himself. The audience knows that Oedipus himself is the murderer that he is seeking; Oedipus, Creon, and Jocasta do not.

Irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker's perception of paradox that arises from insoluble problems. For example, in the William Shakespeare play ''Romeo and Juliet'', when Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged, deathlike sleep, he assumes her to be dead. The audience knows that Juliet has faked her death, yet Romeo believes she is truly dead, and commits suicide. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet stabs herself with a dagger thus killing herself, too.

Situational irony

Situational irony is a relatively modern use of the term, and describes a sharp discrepancy between the expected result and actual results in a certain situation.
Lars Elleström writes:

''Situational irony'' ... is most broadly defined as a situation where the outcome is incongruous with what was expected, but it is also more generally understood as a situation that includes contradictions or sharp contrasts.

For example:
*When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however, a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire instead directed gunfire to the president.The Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr.
by Doug Linder. 2001 Retrieved 9 September 2008.Horberry, R., ''Sounds Good on Paper: How to Bring Business Language to Life'', A&C Black, 2010. p. 138

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*''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a story whose plot revolves around situational irony. Dorothy travels to a wizard and fulfills his challenging demands in order to go home, before discovering she had the ability to go back home all along. The Scarecrow longs for intelligence, only to discover he is already a genius, and the Tin Woodman longs to have a heart, only to discover he is already capable of love. The Lion, who at first appears to be a whimpering coward, turns out to be bold and fearless. The people in Emerald City believed the Wizard to be a powerful deity, only to discover that he is a bumbling, eccentric old man with no special powers at all.
*In O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi", a young couple are too poor to buy each other Christmas gifts. The wife cuts off her treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She's shocked when she learns he had pawned his watch to buy her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair. "The double irony lies in the particular way their expectations were foiled."

Cosmic irony

The expression cosmic irony or "irony of fate" stems from the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusing themselves by toying with the minds of mortals with deliberate ironic intent. Closely connected with situational irony, it arises from sharp contrasts between reality and human ideals, or between human intentions and actual results. The resulting situation is poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended.

According to Sudhir Dixit, "Cosmic irony is a term that is usually associated with homas Hardy. ... There is a strong feeling of a hostile deus ex machina in Hardy's novels." In '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' "there are several instances of this type of irony." One example follows:

Historical irony

When history is seen through modern eyes, there often appear sharp contrasts between the way historical figures see their world's future and what actually transpires. For example, during the 1920s ''The New York Times'' repeatedly scorned crossword puzzles. In 1924, it lamented "the sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words the letters of which will fit into a prearranged pattern." In 1925 it said "the question of whether the puzzles are beneficial or harmful is in no urgent need of an answer. The craze evidently is dying out fast." Today, no U.S. newspaper is more closely identified with the crossword than ''The New York Times.''

In a more tragic example of historical irony, what people now refer to as the "First World War" was called by H. G. Wells

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