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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
Key Examples in The Scarlet Letter
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Hypocritical Sermons:
Dimmesdale's sermons throughout the novel are wrought with situational irony because he is calling on people to behave virtuously even though he himself has failed to do so. An early example of situational irony in Dimmesdale's sermons occurs in Chapter 3, when Dimmesdale tells Hester why she should reveal Pearl's father:
"Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life."
Related Themes:
Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Family Separation:
There is situational irony in the fact that the government wants to separate Hester and Pearl from one another years after they have been exiled. In Chapter 7, the narrator criticizes the governor for getting involved in the scheme to take Pearl away from Hester, which is supposedly for both of their moral betterment:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Among those who promoted the design, Governor Bellingham was said to be one of the most busy. It may appear singular, and indeed, not a little ludicrous, that an affair of this kind, which, in later days, would have been referred to no higher jurisdiction than that of the selectmen of the town, should then have been a question publicly discussed, and on which statesmen of eminence took sides.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Dimmesdale's Health:
Dimmesdale's declining health foreshadows his eventual death from a guilty conscience. One example of this foreshadowing occurs in a moment of dramatic irony in Chapter 8, when the narrator describes the townspeople's reaction to Chillingworth's interest in Dimmesdale:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was understood that this learned man was the physician as well as friend of the young minister, whose health had severely suffered, of late, by his too unreserved self-sacrifice to the labors and duties of the pastoral relation.
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Hypocritical Sermons:
Dimmesdale's sermons throughout the novel are wrought with situational irony because he is calling on people to behave virtuously even though he himself has failed to do so. An early example of situational irony in Dimmesdale's sermons occurs in Chapter 3, when Dimmesdale tells Hester why she should reveal Pearl's father:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life."
Related Themes:
Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Vengeful Doctor:
Dimmesdale and Chillingworth's relationship in the novel is built around dramatic irony: Chillingworth knows that Dimmesdale is Pearl's father, but Dimmesdale does not know that Chillingworth his Hester's estranged husband. In Chapter 14, Chillingworth tells Hester how this uneven knowledge has been impacting Dimmesdale:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"He knew, by some spiritual sense,—for the Creator never made another being so sensitive as this,—he knew that no friendly hand was pulling at his heart-strings, and that an eye was looking curiously into him, which sought only evil, and found it. But he knew not that the eye and hand were mine!"
Related Themes:
