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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
Book 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—All Was Moonlit:
In Chapter 2 of The Sword and the Stone, White uses the reader's expectations for dramatic, regal quests to create a moment of situational irony. After trying to do some amateur falconry with Kay, Wart becomes separated and gets lost in the woods. Soon, arrows fly at him from unidentified assailants. He ducks for cover, fearing for his life. Then, he sees "the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his short life." The reader, familiar with the story trope of deus ex machina, in which a hero arrives just in time to save the helpless, expects that Wart is safe at last. The beech trees shine in the moonlight, and Wart sees a knight before him:
He was mounted on an enormous white horse who stood as rapt as his master, and he carried in his right hand, with its butt mounted on the stirrup, a high, smooth, jousting lance, which stood up among the tree stumps, higher and higher, till it was outlined against the velvet sky. All was moonlit, all silver, all too beautiful to describe.
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Book 1, Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—"King Arthur"?:
If a reader were to open The Once and Future King and not know what it was about, the character of Wart in The Sword and the Stone might be rather confusing. If that reader were to have accidentally skipped the first page in the novel, they would have no idea whatsoever who Wart is or why they should care about this wayward boy from medieval England. Only offhand, on the first page, does White give a quick sense of who Wart is: "The Wart was called the Wart because it more or less rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name." This is the only indication whatsoever, in the early part of the novel, that Wart is King Arthur. Without it, the reader might think this is just a random boy.
So it is quite jarring when, in Chapter 14, seemingly out of nowhere, White foreshadows with unbothered certainty who the Wart will grow up to be:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In other parts of Gramarye, of course, there did exist wicked and despotic masters––feudal gangsters whom it was to be King Arthur's destiny to chasten––but the evil was in the bad people who abused it, not in the feudal system.
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Book 2, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—A Certain Bone:
As Queen Morgause is making her potion out of a black cat in Chapter 1 of The Queen of Air and Darkness, White uses situational irony to describe the situation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The Queen knew that every pure black cat had a certain bone in it, which, if it were held in the mouth after boiling the cat alive, was able to make you invisible. But nobody knew precisely, even in those days, which the bone was. This was why the magic had to be done in front of a mirror, so that the right one could be found by practice.
Book 2, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Four Hundred g:
As Arthur and Merlyn discuss battle strategies on the battlements of Castle Camelot in Chapter 2 of The Queen of Air and Darkness, the pair see some men walking along the path below. Arthur offers to drop a rock on the head of one of the men, and—in a moment of dramatic irony—Merlyn understands what will happen:
Unlock with LitCharts A+'At thirty-two feet per second,' he said, 'I think it would kill him dead. Four hundred g is enough to shatter the skull.
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Book 2, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Different Things:
While the portents of battle gather outside on the plain of Bedegraine, Arthur stays inside the castle. Because he is deep in discussion with Kay, Ector, and Merlyn, it seems as though they are making a plan. But even in the hour of war, they are discussing other things; White plays this situation for laughs:
Unlock with LitCharts A+King Arthur paid no attention to the coming battle. He sat invisible in his pavilion, at the hub of the excitement, and talked to Sir Ector or Kay or Merlyn day after day. The smaller captains were delighted to think that their King was having so many councils of war, for they could see the lamp burning inside the silk tent until all hours, and they felt sure he was inventing a splendid plan of campaign. Actually the conversation was about different things.
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Book 4, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Blundered Through the Gap:
In Chapter 7 of The Candle in the Wind, Lancelot and Guinevere are under siege by what seems to be many knights, hearing "many more voices" and "many joints of harness." After the lovers share a moment, Lancelot prepares for the conflict but, in a moment of simple situational irony, is underwhelmed:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He put his shoulder against the leaping door and softly pushed the beam back, into the wall. Then, still holding the door shut with his shoulder—the people on the other side had desisted from their hewing, feeling that something was about to happen—he settled his right foot firmly on the ground about two feet from the door jamb, and let the door swing open. It stopped with a jerk at his foot, leaving a narrow opening so that it was more ajar than open, and a single knight in full armor blundered through the gap with the obedience of a puppet on strings.
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