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Definition of Verbal Irony
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging outside and someone remarks "what... read full definition
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging... read full definition
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean... read full definition
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Natural Causes:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 3, Sheriff Bell and Wendell investigate the desert crime scene, utilizing verbal irony in their description of one dead man:
The sheriff shook his head. He got down and walked over to where the dead man lay slumped. He walked over the ground, the rifle yoked across his shoulders.
He squatted and studied the grass.
We got another execution here Sheriff?
No, I believe this one's died of natural causes.
Natural causes?
Natural to the line of work he's in.
He aint got a gun.
No.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Truck Load:
In Chapter 5, Sheriff Bell pulls over a trucker who appears to be carting dead bodies from the crime scene out of the desert. Unaware at first that this task has been relegated to the trucker, Sheriff Bell's initial conversation with the man contains a fair amount of verbal irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Have you looked at your load lately?
The driver looked in the mirror. What's the problem, Sheriff? [...]
The man walked back and took a look. One of the tiedowns is worked loose, he said.
He got hold of the loose corner of the tarp and pulled it back up along the bed of the truck over the bodies lying there, each wrapped in blue reinforced plastic sheeting and bound with tape. There were eight of them and they looked like just that. Dead bodies wrapped and taped.
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Explanation and Analysis—Broke Television:
In his monologue at the beginning of Chapter 5, Bell discusses a story he read in the newspaper about a young couple who would torture and kill their elderly tenants. This monologue contains a certain amount of verbal irony from Bell, who seems not to believe the tale even as he himself tells it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+What I was sayin the other day about the papers. Here last week they found this couple out in California they would rent out rooms to old people and then kill em and bury em in the yard and cash their social security checks. They'd torture em first, I dont know why. Maybe their television was broke.
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