What is dramatic irony ?

Question

specifically in Romeo and Juliet....
For example, is it that in the prologue it mentions how they're 'star-crossed lovers' and it is fate that drives them to their death - and is it dramatic irony when Romeo is referring to fate and the stars - is that correct example? help please....
one I know is when Juliet says 'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo' This is dramtic irony as Romeo is there and the audience know this but Juliet does not... correct??

Answer 1

Dramatic irony is a relationship of contrast between a character's limited understanding of his or her situation in some particular moment of the unfolding action and what the audience, at the same instant, understands the character's situation actually to be.

It is thus the result of a special sort of discrepancy in perspective, and hence is "moment-bound." There is on the one hand how things appear from a point of view that emerges within the action at a given moment, and which is constrained by the limitations of an individual's history up to that moment. (In fiction, this will be the picture held by some character -- say, the protagonist of a drama.) There is on the other hand a synoptic point of view that takes in the whole of an interpersonal history, part of which is unknown to that individual at the particular moment in question. For dramatic irony to emerge, some consciousness (in fiction, this will be the audience's) must be simultaneously aware of both perspectives.

Of course, dramatic irony as such is not necessarily tragic. In comedy, for example, the change in circumstances dramatic irony portends can be for the better. A classic instance is the climactic scene in Molière's Tartuffe, in which the villain Tartuffe, responding to the pretended invitation of his patron's wife, carries on contemptuously (and accurately) about the Orgon's gullibility, unaware that the latter is hiding beneath the table on which he's trying to seduce the lady. A famous example of serious comic dramatic irony takes place at the climactic moment of Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

But some of the most famous and powerful uses of dramatic irony are associated with tragedy, where it serves to emphasize how limited human understanding can be even when it is most plausible, and how painful can be the costs of the misunderstandings, in some sense inevitable, that result.

Answer 2

Tragic (or dramatic) irony occurs when a character onstage is ignorant, but the audience watching knows his or her eventual fate, as in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.
In Act III of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
uses dramatic irony to show how Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another is easily turned into many tragicevents where the audience knows what is happening and many characters do not. For example, Romeo says, “My reputation stained with Tybalt’s slander--Tybalt, that an hour hath been my cousin!” right after Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt, so Romeo feels like he has to kill
Tybalt since he killed his best friend(3.1.116-118).
This is dramatic irony because he did not want to kill Tybalt at first because he was now his cousin. This is important because the audience knows Romeo is Tybalt’s cousin, but most of the characters do not, only Romeo, Juliet, the Nurse, and Friar Lawrence. Additionally, after Romeo murders Tybalt, Lord Capulet tells Lady Capulet, “O’Thursday, tell her, she shall be married to this noble earl,” referring to her being married to
Paris (3.5.23-24). This is dramatic irony because Juliet is already married to Romeo, so she cannot marry Paris. This is important because only four of the characters know about her marriage, along with the audience, which causes more problems for Juliet such as how she will get out of this marriage. Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony in Act III of Romeo and
Juliet reveals how Romeo and Juliet’s sudden marriage and love for each other is ruining their lives.

Answer 3

The above definitions are correct, as you seemed to already know. Dramatic irony is created when the audience (or reader) knows something the characters do not.

To address your questions: The greatest dramatic irony in the play has to do with out knowledge that the play will end badly, as opposed to the hopes and plans of the young lovers. Dramatic irony is more often created by the situation than by individual lines of the characters. So our knowledge of the lovers "star-crossed fate" is necessary to create the dramatic irony of the play, and, depending on the individual line, may make Romeo's lines ironic when he speaks of fate in a positive sense -- because we know his fate to be a bad one.

You are right about Juliet's line from the balcony. It is a small example of dramatic irony -- not because she says "wherefore art thou" when he is right there (her line does NOT mean "where are you?" but instead means "Why are you") -- but it is ironic that she is pretending to speak to him, thinking he isn't there, when we know she is actually really speaking to him. (That device -- of having one person pretend to talk to someone they incorrectly think is not present -- is used by Shakespeare all the time, though mostly in his comedies.)

Answer 4

Dramatic irony is when the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters

Answer 5

I always used the term dramatic irony to describe a scenario when the audience or readers know something which another character or a group of characters are not privvy to.

about the where art thou romeo, yes, thats a perfect example.

Answer 6

The others have explained dramatic irony better than I can.

But I have to answer to help out with your second part. So many people misunderstand this. "Wherefore" does NOT mean where. It means WHY. She is asking (and I paraphrase) 'why are you Romeo? Why are you a Montague? You're supposed to be my enemy, your name makes you my enemy, so I hate it. But it's only a name, and you're still you, which is what I love...' It's nothing to do with asking where he is.

Answer 7

i know this!!!!
okay...Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that the characters do not know. So in Romeo and Juilet the first line tells us that two lovers take their lives, so we know what is going to happen but the characters in the play do not. :D

Answer 8

dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters have yet to find out!

Answer 9

yes that is correct. it's when the audience knows something the characters don't and we wait for them to discover whatever they don't know. good luck with your essay, cheat.

Answer 10

Why are we talking about