Situational Irony - Examples and Definition

Definition of Situational Irony
Situational irony is a literary tool that you can without difficulty perceive in literary works. Simply, it happens while incongruity seems among expectancies of some thing to happen, and what definitely occurs instead. Thus, something entirely different occurs from what target market may be expecting, or the very last final results is contrary to what the target audience is expecting. Situational irony generally consists of sharp contrasts and contradictions. The cause of ironic situations is to allow the readers to make a difference among appearances and realities, and sooner or later partner them to the subject matter of a tale.

Examples of Situational Irony from Literature
Example #1: Harry Potter (By J. K. Rowling)
The Harry Potter series is one among the most popular novel collection having employed situational irony. Through seven novels, the audience believes that Harry can kill Voldemort, the evil lord. However, the target market is thrown off protect near the end of this collection while it will become clear that Harry need to allow the evil lord to kill him, in order that Voldemort’s soul could grow to be mortal as soon as again. Hence, Harry allows himself to be killed if you want to defeat Voldemort, which is precisely the other of the target market’s expectancies. By the usage of situational irony, Rowling has completed a incredible activity of including a twist to the story to similarly a complex conflict.

Example #2: The Story of an Hour (By Kate Chopin)
A very famous instance of this form of irony happens closer to the stop of the quick tale, The tale of an Hour, with the aid of Kate Chopin. In this tale, the spouse of Mr. Brently comes to recognize that he isn't any extra alive and has died from an accident, so she feels contended to stay a protracted lifestyles of freedom with no restrictions. However, at the cease of the tale, her husband comes back and, upon seeing him, right away she dies from shock.

Example #3: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (By L. Frank Baum)
The whole story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz gives a case of situational irony. Dorothy is going to the wizard as a way to discover a manner home, simplest to study that she is able to doing so herself. Scarecrow wanted to grow to be intelligent, however he discovers himself a perfect genius. Woodsman considers himself as now not able to love; however he learns that he has an awesome heart. Lion appears as a coward, and turns out to be extraordinarily fearless and courageous.

Example #4: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)
Romeo strives to deliver out peace among Tybalt and Mercutio, and subsequently among the Capulets and the Montagues. However, Mercutio’s demise, and subsequently Romeo’s pledge to kill Tybalt, strengthen a situation main to his banishment, and ultimately to the loss of life of both Romeo and Juliet.

Example #5: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (By T. S. Eliot)
Eliot makes comparison among an nighttime with “a patient etherized upon a table.” By portraying a beautiful natural image, and comparing it with a painful and hard medical process of the present day world, the poet uses situational irony for depicting a natural beauty’s loss in the corrupted world.

Example #6 The Necklace (By Guy de Maupassant)
The plot of de Maupassant’s entire short tale The Necklace is an instance of situational irony. For keeping up appearances, the main character, Mathilda, borrows a necklace from a rich pal however loses it. In order to return her friend’s necklace, Mathilda and her husband replace this jewel with another high-priced one, however because of this replacement they went through a serious economic crisis. Years later, Mathilda meets this pal again, and learns that the jewelry she replaced with real and pricey gemstones was merely a dressing up and artificial piece of jewelry.

Function of Situational Irony
The function of situational irony is to put emphasis on important scenes and make peculiar and unusual images vivid. It creates an unexpected turn at the end of a tale, and makes target audience giggle or cry. Therefore, situational irony may be tragic or funny. Usually writers rent strong phrase connections with situational irony and add clean thoughts, variations, and gildings to their works. It may range from the maximum comic to the most tragic situations. Its comical use generally creates an surprising turnaround in a plot for the betterment. Sometimes, these kinds of irony arise because people identify certain events and conditions as unfair or odd.