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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 3. The Seventh Proof
Explanation and Analysis—The Streetcar:
Devilish, ironic luck follows Berlioz when he leaves the park. In Chapter 3, the literary editor reaches his bloody end just as he passes the turnstiles, exemplifying situational irony:
‘He turned it and was ready to step across the rails, when a burst of red and white light flashed into his face: the glass case lit up with a warning, ‘Look out for the streetcar!’
And all at once the streetcar careened around the corner of the newly-laid line from Yermolayev Lane to Bronnaya.
Chapter 9. Koroviev’s Stunts
Explanation and Analysis—Devil Knows How Far!:
In almost the same way idiom and irony cross paths, Nikanor Ivanovich bumps into the strange man with the pince-nez and jockey cap as he checks on apartment 50 at the start of Chapter 9:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Why, he’s gone, he’s gone already!’ shouted the interpreter. ‘Oh, he is way out by now! The devil knows how far he is!’ and the interpreter waved his hands like a windmill.
Related Themes:
Chapter 17. An Unquiet Day
Explanation and Analysis—The Choral Director:
Dramatic irony writes itself throughout Chapter 17 as Vasily Stepanovich shuffles from one dysfunctional commission building to the next. A visit to Prokhor Petrovich’s office—in which he meets a bodiless suit signing papers—sends him just as quickly to the other branch, where he finds all its employees burst out in uncontrollable fits of song. The wailing young lady gives an account of the events:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘And today, at lunch time, the director comes in…
…and brings in by the hand some son of a bitch,’ the girl went on. ‘Heaven knows where he picked him up-in tight checkered pants, with a cracked pince-nez, and…generally…an impossible smug!...
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Chapter 18. Hapless Visitors
Explanation and Analysis—This Truthful Narrative:
By the end of Book One in The Master and Margarita, so much has gone awry that sparrows dancing the foxtrot and a disappearing, fanged nurse in Professor Kuzmin’s office seem less like exceptions than the expectation. Closing Chapter 18, Bulgakov ironically ushers the reader into the work’s next section with verbal irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+We do not know what other fantastical events took place in Moscow that night and, of course, we shall not try to search them out—especially since the time has come for us to go on to the second part of this truthful narrative. Follow me, reader!
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—No Good People:
Maximilian Andreyevich enters apartment 50 with high hopes and a strange acquaintance. Meeting a tomcat and a crying stranger in Chapter 18, Berlioz’s uncle feels a sudden upwelling of emotion, in a moment laden with paradox and irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Berlioz’s uncle was sincerely moved by the stranger’s conduct. “And they say there are no good people left in the world today!" he thought, feeling that his own eyes were beginning to smart.
Related Themes:
