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Unreliable Narrator
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
Main Story
Explanation and Analysis—The Cognomen of Crane:
Throughout “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses verbal irony to give readers a more critical view of the story’s characters and setting. He employs this technique to introduce his protagonist and the Sleepy Hollow community:
In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane[.]
Related Themes:
