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Literary Devices
Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Key Examples in A Retrieved Reformation
Dramatic Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Jimmy Saving Agatha:
In an example of both dramatic and situational irony, Annabel pleads for Jimmy—who she believes to be a simple shoemaker named Ralph—to save her niece Agatha from being trapped inside of her father’s safe at the Elmore Bank. The layers of irony come across in the following passage, as Annabel and her family realize Agatha is trapped:
Agatha’s mother, frantic now, beat the door of the vault with her hands. Somebody wildly suggested dynamite. Annabel turned to Jimmy, her large eyes full of anguish, but not yet despairing. To a woman nothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the man she worships.
“Can’t you do something, Ralph—try, won’t you?”
He looked at her with a queer, soft smile on his lips and in his keen eyes.
Related Themes:
