A Room of One's Own Literary Devices

Definition of Verbal Irony

Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging outside and someone remarks "what... read full definition

Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging... read full definition

Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean... read full definition

Explanation and Analysis—Mrs. Seton:

Toward the end of Chapter 1, the narrator meditates on the historical position of Mrs. Seton, her friend Mary Seton's mother. In a series of reflections, the narrator uses verbal irony to illuminate the cause of female educational poverty:

If only Mrs Seton and her mother and her mother before her had learnt the great art of making money and had left their money, like their fathers and their grandfathers before them, to found fellowships and lectureships and prizes and scholarships appropriated to the use of their own sex, we might have dined very tolerably up here alone off a bird and a bottle of wine; we might have looked forward without undue confidence to a pleasant and honourable lifetime spent in the shelter of one of the liberally endowed professions.

Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atqu

Explanation and Analysis—Learned and Unprejudiced:

In Chapter 2, the narrator moves to criticize those male scholars who have their work entombed at the British Museum—men who, on account of their institutional credentials, consider themselves superior and unbiased in their reasoning. Note the narrator's use of verbal irony to satirize these men in the following passage:

But one needed answers, not questions; and an answer was only to be had by consulting the learned and the unprejudiced, who have removed themselves above the strife of tongue and the confusion of body and issued the result of their reasoning and research in books which are to be found in the British Museum.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

A Room of One's Own: Verbal Irony 2 key examples

Definition of Verbal Irony