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 1
Explanation and Analysis—Ill-disposed John:
When Austen describes Elinor and Marianne’s half-brother John Dashwood (who has inherited their home after the death of their father and forces them to move out), she uses verbal irony:
He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted, and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed: but he was, in general, well respected.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—How Comfortable:
Near the start of the novel, Fanny Dashwood tries to convince her husband John that his half-sisters don’t need more than 1,500 pounds a year each to live off of (after he has proposed 3,000 pounds), inadvertently using verbal irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Altogether, they will have five hundred a year amongst them, and what on earth can four women want for more than that? They will live so cheap! Their housekeeping will be nothing at all. They will have no carriage, no horses, and hardly any servants; they will keep no company, and can have no expences of any kind! Only conceive how comfortable they will be!”
Related Themes:
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Marianne and Brandon:
In an example of situational irony, Marianne ends up marrying Colonel Brandon, an older man she was expressly uninterested in for much of the novel. In one of the many moments in which Marianne makes her lack of interest in Colonel Brandon known, she gossips with Willoughby about how “nobody cares about” him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Brandon is just the kind of man,” said Willoughby one day, when they were talking of him together, “whom every body speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.”
“That is exactly what I think of him,” cried Marianne.
Related Themes:
Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Lucy and Edward:
A key moment of situational irony in Sense and Sensibility is when Lucy Steele reveals to Elinor that she and Edward have been engaged to be married for four years. Elinor's reaction to this reveal highlights the irony in the interaction:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Good heavens!” cried Elinor, “what do you mean? Are you acquainted with Mr. Robert Ferrars? Can you be?” And she did not feel much delighted with the idea of such a sister-in-law.
“No;” replied Lucy, “not to Mr. Robert Ferrars—I never saw him in my life; but,” fixing her eyes upon Elinor, “to his elder brother.”
What felt Elinor at that moment? Astonishment, that would have been as painful as it was strong, had not an immediate disbelief of the assertion attended it.
Related Themes:
Chapter 29
Explanation and Analysis—Willoughby's Lies:
Despite his endless flirting with Marianne (including buying her a horse and keeping a lock of her hair), Willoughby reveals to her that he was never interested in her romantically—an example of situational irony. Readers assume—as Elinor and Mrs. Dashwood do—that Edward has asked Marianne to marry him and is just in London for work-related matters when, in fact, he is in London in order to find a wealthy woman to marry (which he finds in Miss Grey).
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Chapter 32
Explanation and Analysis—You're Still in Town:
In an example of verbal irony, Lucy Steele communicates to Elinor how glad she is to find her still in town when she, in fact, means the opposite, given her awareness of Elinor and Edward’s love for each other:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I should have been quite disappointed if I had not found you here still,” said she repeatedly, with a strong emphasis on the word. “But I always thought I should. I was almost sure you would not leave London yet awhile; though you told me, you know, at Barton, that you should not stay above a month. But I thought, at the time, that you would most likely change your mind when it came to the point […] And now to be sure you will be in no hurry to be gone. I am amazingly glad you did not keep to your word.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 34
Explanation and Analysis—Mrs. Ferrars:
In an example of verbal irony, Austen describes Mrs. Ferrars—Edward’s mother—as if she is complimenting her when really she is criticizing her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Mrs. Ferrars was a little, thin woman, upright, even to formality, in her figure, and serious, even to sourness, in her aspect. Her complexion was sallow; and her features small, without beauty, and naturally without expression; but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity, by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature. She was not a woman of many words: for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas.
Related Themes:
Chapter 35
Explanation and Analysis—Marianne's Flattery:
In an example of dramatic irony, Margaret, Marianne, and Mrs. Dashwood don’t know—as Elinor and readers do—that Edward has been engaged to Lucy Steele for four years. Because of this, they talk about him as if he’s still the perfect suitor for Elinor, offering him compliments that Elinor accepts silently because, as the sister who has “sense,” she believes that she must keep painful feelings and truths to herself.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Lucy and Edward:
A key moment of situational irony in Sense and Sensibility is when Lucy Steele reveals to Elinor that she and Edward have been engaged to be married for four years. Elinor's reaction to this reveal highlights the irony in the interaction:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Good heavens!” cried Elinor, “what do you mean? Are you acquainted with Mr. Robert Ferrars? Can you be?” And she did not feel much delighted with the idea of such a sister-in-law.
“No;” replied Lucy, “not to Mr. Robert Ferrars—I never saw him in my life; but,” fixing her eyes upon Elinor, “to his elder brother.”
What felt Elinor at that moment? Astonishment, that would have been as painful as it was strong, had not an immediate disbelief of the assertion attended it.
Related Themes:
Chapter 47
Explanation and Analysis—The Wrong Brother:
In an example of situational irony near the end of the novel, everyone in the Dashwood family believes that Lucy has married Edward when she has really married his brother Robert. This is because, in the following exchange, the Dashwoods’ servant refers to Robert simply as “Mr. Ferrars” and the Dashwoods jump to conclusions, having enormous emotional responses in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I suppose you know, ma’am, that Mr. Ferrars is married.”
Marianne gave a violent start, fixed her eyes upon Elinor, saw her turning pale, and fell back in her chair in hysterics. Mrs. Dashwood, whose eyes, as she answered the servant’s enquiry, had intuitively taken the same direction, was shocked to perceive by Elinor’s countenance how much she really suffered, and in a moment afterwards, alike distressed by Marianne’s situation, knew not on which child to bestow her principal attention.
Related Themes:
