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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—You Cannot Derogate:
In conversation with Cloten, the spoiled and foolish son of the Queen and stepson of the King, the First Lord employs verbal irony to mock his companion:
FIRST LORD
There’s an Italian come, and ’tis thought one of Leonatus’ friends.CLOTEN
Leonatus? A banished rascal; and he’s another,
whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger?FIRST LORD
One of your Lordship’s pages.CLOTEN
Is it fit I went to look upon him? Is there no derogation in ’t?FIRST LORD
You cannot derogate, my lord.CLOTEN
Not easily, I think.FIRST LORD
[aside] You are a fool granted; therefore your issues, being foolish, do not derogate.
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:
Unlock with LitCharts A+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.
