All 6 Uses
irony
in
To the Lighthouse
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- And what are two thousand years? (asked Mr. Ramsay ironically, ...) ... The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare.
Part 1 *ironically = when the truth is very different than what might be expected
- So they were sent for walks together, and she was told, with that faint touch of irony that made Mrs. Ramsay slip through one's fingers, that she had a scientific mind; she liked flowers; she was so exact.
Part 3irony = when what happens is very different than what might be expected
- "James will have to write HIS dissertation one of these days," he added ironically, flicking his sprig.†
Part 1
- With some irony in her interrogation, for when one woke at all, one's relations changed, she looked at the steady light, the pitiless, the remorseless, which was so much her, yet so little her, which had her at its beck and call (she woke in the night and saw it bent across their bed, stroking the floor), but for all that she thought, watching it with fascination, hypnotised, as if it were stroking with its silver fingers some sealed vessel in her brain whose bursting would flood her with delight, she had known happiness, exquisite happiness, intense happiness, and it silvered the rough waves a little more brightly, as daylight faded, and the blue went out of the sea and it rolled in waves o†
Part 1
- She smiled ironically; for had she not thought, when she began, that she had solved her problem?†
Part 3
- She had looked at him ironically from her seat in the half-empty hall, pumping love into that chilly space, and suddenly, there was the old cask or whatever it was bobbing up and down among the waves and Mrs. Ramsay looking for her spectacle case among the pebbles.†
Part 3
Definitions:
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(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 sarcasmThis is sometimes referred to as "verbal irony." Typically, the speaker says one thing but means the opposite, and the tone of voice or the context of the situation makes the true, contradictory meaning clear.
All forms of irony involve the perception that things are not 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, as in Romeo and JulietAll forms of irony involve the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they seem.
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(4)
(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.