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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
Key Examples in An Ideal Husband
Act 2, Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Gospel of Greed:
In Act 2, Part 1, Sir Robert Chiltern woefully describes how Baron Arnheim seduced him with talk of power and wealth—talk that ultimately convinced Robert to sell a government secret to Arnheim in order to give momentum to his own political career. With considerable verbal irony, he recounts his experience of Arnheim’s persuasion using the language of philosophy and religion:
With that wonderfully fascinating quiet voice of his he expounded to us the most terrible of all philosophies, the philosophy of power, preached to us the most marvellous of all gospels, the gospel of gold. I think he saw the effect he had produced on me, for some days afterwards he wrote and asked me to come and see him.
