Dramatic Irony
Lady Audley’s Secret
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Lady Audley’s Secret: Dramatic Irony 1 key example

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
Volume 2, Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Petty Woman's Tyranny:

In this segment of Lady Audley's Secret, the narrative uses hyperbolic language and dramatic irony to talk about Lady Audley's beauty and how it has made her selfish and self-obsessed:

Did she remember the day in which that fairy dower of beauty had first taught her to be selfish and cruel, indifferent to the joys and sorrows of others, cold-hearted and capricious, greedy of admiration, exacting and tyrannical with that petty woman's tyranny which is the worst of despotism?