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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 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Do Not Relish:
In explaining his desire to step away from his role as leader of Vienna, Duke Vincentio speaks ironically about his distaste for stages and audiences:
I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause and Aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
That does affect it.
Act 1, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Snow-Broth:
Lucio uses a series of closely related metaphors to describe the unsympathetic nature of Vienna’s new leader, Angelo:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo, a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind: study and fast.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—These Filthy Vices:
In refusing Isabella’s pleas for clemency for her brother, Claudio, Angelo condemns those who engage in sex outside of marriage. This speech is ironic given his own feelings of lust for Isabella, who is a novice nun barred from marriage.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit
Their saucy sweetness that do coin God’s image
In stamps that are forbid.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—To Speak with the Duke:
Though Measure for Measure is not a comedy, many of its comedic scenes are dependent upon dramatic irony. Though characters believe they are speaking to a visiting friar, the audience understands that they are speaking to the Duke in disguise. In some of the play’s funniest moments, characters speak to the Duke about the Duke himself. In one scene, for example, Isabella tells the “Friar” that she wishes she could speak directly to the Duke about Angelo’s behavior:
Unlock with LitCharts A+ISABELLA
But, O, how much is the good
duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I
can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or
discover his government.DUKE [as Friar]
That shall not be much amiss.
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—An Inward:
In a scene punctuated with dramatic irony, Lucio falsely pretends to be close friends with the Duke in conversation with the Duke himself, who is here disguised as a friar so that he can more closely observe the citizens of his city:
Unlock with LitCharts A+DUKE, as Friar
I never heard the absent duke much
detected for women. He was not inclined that way.LUCIO
O, sir, you are deceived.DUKE, as Friar
’Tis not possible.LUCIO
Who, not the Duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty;
and his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish. The
Duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too,
that let me inform you.DUKE, as Friar
You do him wrong, surely.LUCIO
Sir, I was an inward of his.
Related Themes:
