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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
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Road to Execution:
In a moment of grim comedy punctuated by dramatic irony, Imogen unknowingly foreshadows later events in the play. When Pisanio attempts to moderate her excitement about Posthumus's apparent return to Britain and suggests that they could travel no more than 20 miles in a day, Imogen responds impatiently:
Why, one that rode to's execution, man,
Could never go so slow: I have heard of riding wagers,
Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i' the clock's behalf.
Explanation and Analysis—Blessèd Milford:
In a scene saturated with dramatic irony, Imogen excitedly reads the letter she has received from Posthumus:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Hear’st thou, Pisanio?
He is at Milford Haven. Read, and tell me
How far ’tis thither. If one of mean affairs
May plod it in a week, why may not I
Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio,
Who long’st like me to see thy lord, who long’st—
O, let me bate—but not like me, yet long’st
But in a fainter kind—O, not like me,
For mine’s beyond beyond—say, and speak thick—
Love’s counselor should fill the bores of hearing
To th’ smothering of the sense—how far it is
To this same blessèd Milford.
Act 3, Scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—Were You a Woman:
Following Pisanio’s advice, a distraught Imogen disguises herself as a young man, hoping to gain employment with the Roman ambassador Lucius in order to gain information about Posthumus, who has returned to Britain with the invading Roman army. In a scene suffused with dramatic irony, she unknowingly meets Guiderius and Arviragus, her long-lost brothers:
Unlock with LitCharts A+GUIDERIUS
Were you a woman, youth,
I should woo hard but be your groom in honesty,
Ay, bid for you as I do buy.ARVIRAGUS
I’ll make ’t my comfort
He is a man. I’ll love him as my brother.—
And such a welcome as I’d give to him
After long absence, such is yours. Most welcome.
Be sprightly, for you fall ’mongst friends.IMOGEN
’Mongst friends? If brothers— ( aside )
Would it had been so, that they
Had been my father’s sons! Then had my prize
Been less, and so more equal ballasting To thee, Posthumus.
