Could someone please explain to me the concept of irony?

Answer 1

I once read a greeting card that said
on the front:
"The irony is this..."
The inside read:
"To find out, you must go in."

Irony is that odd feeling you have right now, the one that would be trying to categorize the various ways to interpret the meaning of the card.
Yes, it's true you had to go inside the card to find out what the rest of the card said, and yes it is also true that you never would have needed to find your way out of a greeting card if you never went inside to begin with.
Which interpretation was intended and which was implied is up to you or the writer to decide.
Irony can easily be confused with coincidence and/or sarcasm

Answer 2

Although Alanis Morissette sings "isn't it ironic?", her song is actually examples of coincidence, not irony. Coincidence and irony are often confused.

Irony arises from an event and an outcome having discordant results, and also when the act of pursuing a certain outcome has the opposite result. Also irony can come from a statement, which in light of historical perspective, is opposite of what really happens.

There are multiple types of irony, some complicated, some not so much.

One well-known example is on O.Henry's story, "The Gift of the Magi," where the young couple each sacrifices their most valued possesion to buy a gift for the other - the wife sells her beautiful hair to buy her husband a watch-chain, and the husband sells his heirloom watch to buy his wife a set of combs for her lovely, long hair. In their sacrifice of material goods, they realize the value and richness of their intangible love. This is situational irony.

In cosmic irony, there is a contrast betwee intention and results. An example is astronaut Gus Grissom dying in a spacecraft fire where he was unable to get out - after having helped redesign the hatch mechanism which he felt was too easily opened, and which was made more difficult to open as a result. Another example is the rainstorm that comes right after you water the lawn, after having put off watering because you hoped it would rain.

It's also ironic that, when computers were first invented, comments were made that no one would ever use them outside a government or academic setting. As you can see, the irony is obvious!

Answer 3

well, theres a lot of different types of irony...

the one most often used is like for example, if a man was accused of murder between 5pm and 10 pm in denver, and the same man says he is innocent, but also bought round trip plane tickets to denver and back between 5 and 10 pm. that day...
it would be ironic that the two incidents collided, because it is easy to assume they are related

in theater, there is dramatic irony, and stage irony...
dramatic irony is what i said above
stage irony is when the actors act out a scene so the audience is filled in with what is going on, and then in the next scene with different actors, the new actors play their roles as they are not filled in with the same information the audience knows of


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony


"the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend. "

Answer 4

a bus driver getting ran over by a bus!

1. verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means something else.
2. dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know.
3. irony of situation is a discrepency between the expected result and actual results.

Answer 5

Irony is when what we say or write conveys the opposite of its literal meaning. For example, "Mother will be happy to hear what you have done now," when Mother will not be at all happy. Other examples: "Nice weather!" when it is raining, or "How's Einstein this morning?" or "Of course I believe you," when said in a sarcastic manner.

It could also be situational irony.... some examples

(1) You break a date with your girlfriend so you can go to the ball game with the guys. When you go to the concession stand, you run into your date who is with another guy.

(2) You stay up all night studying for a test. When you go to class, you discover the test is not until the next day.

Answer 6

irony is when something happens that is contrary to what you would expect or is in some way paradoxal.

There are different kinds of irony, so you should do further research. Wikipedia has a good article on it... but here are some examples.

A fire marshall's house burning down.

A brother sells a pocket watch to buy hair clips for his sister who has sold her hair to buy a chain for her brother's pocket watch. (from a book I read as a kid)

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OMG! That stupid Alanis Morrisette song does NOT contain one instance of actual irony! (which might be the actual irony of the song) http://fgk.hanau.net/articles/ironic.html

Answer 7

listen the the song by Alantis Morresett, " Isnt it Ironic?"

Like rain on your wedding day
Like a free ride that you have already paid for
Like winning the lottery and dying the next day

just some examples

Answer 8

It's when the results aren't consistent with what you would expect. If someone is afraid of riding a roller coaster but after years and years finally does and the ride flies off the tracks and kills them--that's ironic. You would expect that everything would go fine and that on his/her one and only roller coaster ride the chances of derailing would be very, very small.

Answer 9

Irony is defined as an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

Or in other words when something happens that was what you figured would happen.

Answer 10

Something is "ironic" if something happens that has previously been mentioned, talked about, or thought about.

Example: I was thinking about calling my friend last night and while I was thinking about it, my friend called me. It was really ironic.

(It was "ironic" that my friend called me as I was thinking about calling them)