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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
Dramatic Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Michael’s Clothes:
In an example of dramatic irony, Nora and Cathleen (and readers) are aware from the beginning of the play that Michael has most likely drowned, but his mother Maurya is not. When the two girls receive a bundle of clothing from the young priest—who tells them that they were found on a dead man off the coast of mainland Ireland and could be Michael’s—they decide to hide it from their mother. When Nora asks if they should open it, Cathleen responds:
Give me the ladder, and I’ll put them up in the turf-loft, the way she won’t know of them at all, and maybe when the tide turns she’ll be going down to see would he be floating from the east.
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