
In her 1996 hit “Ironic,” Alanis Morissette famously sings that irony is “like rain on your wedding day” and “a black fly in your chardonnay.” Sorry, Alanis, but true irony goes a bit deeper than that. Dramatic irony is often misunderstood, so let’s get to the bottom of it.
Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that a character doesn’t. It’s a form of irony embedded into a narrative’s structure. Since it requires an audience with a different perspective than a character, it can only occur within a dramatic work. For example, in O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi,” Della sells her long hair so that she can afford a watch chain for her husband, Jim; meanwhile, Jim sells his watch to pay for combs for Della’s hair—rendering both gifts useless. The audience knows about Della’s choice before Jim does, which creates dramatic irony.
The difference between dramatic, verbal, and situational irony
While dramatic irony entails a contrast between what an audience knows and what characters know, verbal irony is a contrast between words and their meaning, and situational irony is a contrast between what’s expected of a situation and what actually happens.
Verbal irony is saying one thing while meaning something radically opposed to it. Not to be confused with lying, a person employing verbal irony isn’t trying to trick or mislead the person they’re speaking to; rather, the contradiction to reality is unmissable. Verbal irony can take the form of sarcasm, overstatement, or understatement. The biggest distinction is that sarcasm is technically always negative and done at another’s expense, while verbal irony can apply in more contexts.
Situational irony refers to an outcome that deviates from expectations. This often occurs in works of fiction but can also happen in real life, when unexpected things happen. However, it’s easy to misuse situational irony as a term and apply it to unfitting events. Rather than an outcome simply being odd, it must be the direct antithesis of the expectation to definitively qualify as situational irony. A lamp producing toast when it’s switched on is weird, but it isn’t situational irony. On the other hand, a lamp that somehow makes a room darker when it’s switched on would be situationally ironic.
Verbal, situational, and dramatic are the primary forms of irony, but there are other types, such as cosmic and Socratic irony. Cosmic irony is when the world, universe, or higher powers are responsible for the reversal of expectations. Socratic irony involves somebody playing dumb or devil’s advocate by presenting an intellectual stance that doesn’t reflect their genuine thinking.
Circling back to Morissette: While rain on your wedding day isn’t ironic, rain on the forecasted driest day of the year could be considered both situational and cosmic irony. A bride declaring that she loved a thunderstorm interrupting her wedding could be an example of verbal irony. And in the context of a work of fiction, the audience learning that a storm is brewing while a bride continues to expect nothing but sunshine would fall under the umbrella of dramatic irony.
1. Take the nuances of the medium into account
Dramatic irony can manifest in many of the same ways onstage and onscreen, but the methods for conveying information may vary depending on form.
- Stage: With theatrical performances, it’s especially important to time dialogue in a way that brings the audience in on a situation without the characters’ knowledge. For example, in “Othello,” Iago gives a monologue early on explaining his reasons for wanting to take down Othello, who remains unaware of his trusted adviser’s machinations. Tension builds as the audience watches Iago enact his plan, waiting for Othello to discover the truth.
- Screen: Filmmaking provides writers and directors with a few extra tools and tactics to craft dramatic irony. While it’s often necessary to verbalize information in live performances, a silent close-up might be all that’s needed to accomplish the same feat in a film. Juxtaposing shots, flashbacks, and sounds can all reveal information to the audience while keeping it from the characters. In Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” for instance, a non-diegetic, two-note ostinato tells the audience that the murderous shark is encroaching, while the characters remain blissfully unaware. Setting up dramatic irony for film is a form of exposition, so it’s crucial to remember the show-don’t-tell rule.
2. Make it meaningful
While it’s true that anything the audience learns before a character can technically qualify as dramatic irony, it won’t leave a lasting impact if the information and its consequences are inconsequential. Make it resonate with your project’s overarching themes, and use it as a tool for character development, moral exploration, and creating tension. Strive to avoid oversimplified or contrived dramatic irony, like the “not what it looks like” trope often used in sitcoms, when a character misunderstands the actions of another character and refuses to listen to their explanation.
3. Keep the audience experience in mind
Don’t get too carried away using the device, since there are situations in which dramatic irony can be detrimental to the viewing experience. Having the audience be a step or two ahead when the protagonist is moving toward danger can create a wonderful sense of tension—and, by extension, allow for a sense of impending doom or tragic inevitability, as the unaware character marches toward their fate. But you wouldn’t typically want the audience to be ahead of a protagonist unraveling a mystery, or to figure out a twist before the big reveal.
4. Wrap it up
If the audience learns information that a character is in the dark about, the character must eventually discover that information to conclude the setup. If the character remains in the dark all the way until the end of the story, then you haven’t really pulled off dramatic irony; this would be a mistake similar to an unfired Chekhov’s gun.
Alfred Hitchcock’s hidden bomb
During an American Film Institute seminar, master of suspense Hitchcock presented a bomb-under-the-table thesis to show how dramatic irony creates tension. While the audience is privy to the knowledge that there is a bomb under the table, the characters are not, thus failing to comprehend the danger they’re in.
The suicides in “Romeo and Juliet”
The double suicide of the star-crossed lovers is perhaps the most well-known and timeless example of dramatic irony in all of fiction. While this scene is from Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation, any production of the Shakespeare play depicts the same dramatic irony.
The bag scene in “Audition”
Takashi Miike’s 1999 film “Audition” offers a master class in crafting dramatic irony for the purpose of horror. At the point in the movie seen in this scene, Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) thinks that Asami (Eihi Shiina) is a normal person who might make a good romantic match. He gives her a call, and her pleasant voice fools him into holding fast to that belief. However, the audience is privy to what’s happening on her end of the conversation and can see that there is something horrifying taking place in her home—and that Shigeharu is likely next.
David’s deception in “The Guest”
This 2014 thriller from Adam Wingard injects dramatic irony early on to create a sense of intrigue and suspense. When a man calling himself David (Dan Stevens) shows up at a family’s home claiming to be a friend of their deceased son, they take him at face value and welcome him with open arms. But behind closed doors, the audience sees a different side to the soldier. The facade of humanity drains from his face as soon as he’s alone, telling audiences right away that there’s more to the guest than meets the eye—a fact that the family won’t learn until blood starts spilling.
Dog accident in “Trafic”
Jacques Tati’s 1971 movie “Trafic” provides a creative example of dramatic irony being used for comedy. In the scene shown here, the audience knows that prankster teenagers have swapped a dog out for a fake to trick Maria (Maria Kimberly) into thinking she has run over her own pet. Since Maria is deprived of that knowledge, the audience can be amused as she falls for the prank hook, line, and sinker. And, of course, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot (Tati) makes matters infinitely worse while trying to demonstrate that the flattened form he pulls from beneath her car tire isn’t her dog. If the audience wasn’t let in on the prank from the outset, the scene wouldn’t be funny due to a lack of dramatic irony.