Irony

What's irony all about? Most simply put, irony happens when there's a gap between what's stated on the surface and what's meant deep down at the heart of things. It's a powerful force in storytelling, so know it and use it well.

In our lesson we talked about four major kinds of irony, with examples. There are other types of irony, but these are the ones we see most often:

• Verbal Irony - this is where you say the opposite of what you mean. Suppose your friend drops a hammer on your foot and through your tears and clenched teeth you say, "Oh, no, that didn't hurt at all." That's verbal irony.
• Dramatic Irony - this kind of irony happens when there's an audience who knows more than the characters do. For instance, if a character is making what he thinks is a good decision, but the audience can see it's a really stupid move, that's dramatic irony.
• Situational Irony - in this kind of irony, someone does something in order to get a certain result, but it turns out to be totally counter-productive. Sort of like pumping up a slightly under-inflated car tire, only to make the stem valve blow out, and thus the tire becomes completely flat. Yeah, it's happened to me.
• Cosmic Irony - in this kind of irony, the universe itself seems to be out to thwart your intentions. For example, we could try to save the world by putting a stop to global warming, only to unwittingly plunge the planet into an ice age.

Next week's lesson: Betrayal