Previous
Imagery
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
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Bathsheba's Ride:
In a moment of dramatic irony, the reader observes Bathsheba riding as if no one is watching her:
The girl, who wore no riding-habit, looked around for a moment as if to ensure herself that all humanity was out of view, then dexterously dropped backwards flat upon the pony’s back, her head over its tail, her feet against its shoulder and her eyes to the sky. The rapidity of her glide in this position was that of a kingfisher—its noiselessness that of a hawk [...]. Thus she passed under the level boughs.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Bathsheba's Manner:
In this scene, one of many occasions on which Oak watches Bathsheba without her knowledge, Hardy’s use of situational irony tells the reader something about Bathsheba’s relationship to her own beauty:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She came, the pail in one hand, hanging against her knee. The left arm was extended as a balance [...] There was a bright air and manner about her now, by which she seemed to imply that the desirability of her existence could not be questioned; and this rather saucy assumption failed in being offensive because a beholder felt it to be, upon the whole, true. [...] It was with some surprise that she saw Gabriel’s face rising like the moon, behind the hedge.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—The Forwardest Thing:
After Gabriel Oak leaves Bathsheba's aunt’s farm, Bathsheba chases him down to let him know that she has no other suitors. He proposes, and she rejects him immediately. In a moment of situational irony, she admits that if she truly wanted to marry him, she would never pursue him outright:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“ [...] Why, if I’d wanted you I shouldn’t have run after you like this; t’would have the forwardest thing! But there was no harm in hurrying to correct a piece of false news that had been told you.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Boldwood's Moods:
After Boldwood has become the target of Bathsheba’s joke valentine, the narrator reveals that, beneath his veneer of apparent calm, Boldwood is a deeply emotional person. This description is actually an instance of situational irony, as the unassuming Boldwood is revealed to be full of passion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+That stillness, which struck casual observers more than anything else in his character and habit [...] may have been the perfect balance of enormous antagonistic forces—positives and negatives in fine adjustment. His equilibrium disturbed, he was in extremity at once. [...]Bathsheba was far from dreaming that the dark and silent shape upon which she had so carelessly thrown a seed was a hotbed of tropic intensity. Had she known Boldwood’s moods, her blame would have been fearful, and the stain upon her heart ineradicable [...] she would have trembled at her responsibility.
