All 11 Uses of
irony
in
Tender is the Night
- He spoke with incisive irony. "Tell a secret over the radio, publish it in a tabloid, but never tell it to a man who drinks more than three or four a day."
Chpt 1.17 *irony = saying one thing while meaning something else
- Lying back in his place between Earl Brady, to whom he had addressed several withering remarks about the movies, and Mrs. Abrams, to whom he said nothing, he stared at Dick Diver with an expression of devastating irony, the effect being occasionally interrupted by his attempts to engage Dick in a cater-cornered conversation across the table.†
Chpt 1.7
- —and then re-create the unity of his own party by destroying the outsiders softly but permanently with an ironic coup de grâce.†
Chpt 1.12
- Nicole and Mary urged him ironically to seize the opportunity; they teased him, both faintly annoyed at not having been asked for a sitting.†
Chpt 1.16
- "When Nicole takes things into her hands," he said with affectionate irony, "there is nothing more to be done."†
Chpt 1.19 *
- In Salzburg once Dick had felt the superimposed quality of a bought and borrowed century of music; once in the laboratories of the university in Zurich, delicately poking at the cervical of a brain, he had felt like a toy-maker rather than like the tornado who had hurried through the old red buildings of Hopkins, two years before, unstayed by the irony of the gigantic Christ in the entrance hall.†
Chpt 2.2
- "But I have much to do with the fact that this so-called 'transference,' " he darted a short ironic look at Franz which the latter returned in kind, "must be terminated.†
Chpt 2.6
- He turned on his bed-lamp light and made a thorough note of it ending with the half-ironic phrase: "Non-combatant's shell-shock.†
Chpt 2.14
- She was furious at the woman for her preposterous statement, equally furious at Dick for having brought them here, for having become fuddled, for having untipped the capped barbs of his irony, for having come off humiliated—she was a little more annoyed because she knew that her taking possession of Tommy Barban on their arrival had first irritated the Englishwoman.†
Chpt 3.5
- She spoke to Nicole with pleasant heartiness, nodded unsmilingly to Dick as if he were somewhat contagious—whereupon he bowed in ironic respect—as she greeted Rosemary.†
Chpt 3.7
- Dick nodded gravely, looking at the stone floor, like a priest in the confessional—he was torn between a tendency to ironic laughter and another tendency to order fifty stripes of the cat and a fortnight of bread and water.†
Chpt 3.10
Definitions:
-
(1)
(irony as in: situational irony) when what happens is very different than what might be expected; or when things are together that seem like they don't belong together -- especially when amusing or an entertaining coincidenceThis is sometimes referred to as "situational irony." The term is especially appropriate when actions have consequences opposite to those intended.
The expression ironic smile, generally references someone smiling at situational irony.
All forms of irony involve the perception that things are not what they might seem. -
(2)
(irony as in: verbal irony) saying one thing, while meaning the opposite or something else -- usually as humor or sarcasm
(With this type of irony, it's not uncommon for the words to say one thing while the tone-of-voice and/or context says another.)This is sometimes referred to as "verbal irony."
All forms of irony involve the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they might seem. -
(3)
(irony as in: dramatic irony) when the meaning of a situation is understood by one person, but not by another -- especially when a reader or audience knows what characters of a story do not (such as in the play, Romeo and Juliet)All forms of irony involve the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they seem.
-
(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Less commonly, Socratic irony is where someone pretends ignorance to get another to think through a problem. This is named after the Socratic method of teaching.
Less commonly still, some also refer to romantic irony as when an author reminds the audience that the fictional words is the author's creation and will play out as the author desires.