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This is a 5 page paper that provides an overview of dramatic irony. Examples from "Oedipus the King" and "Master Harold and the Boys" are given. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KW60_KFlit043.doc
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a direct means by which the author can capitalize upon the tension that exists between what the audience knows and what the characters in a particular work know. Everyone is
familiar with this kind of narrative tension; for instance, when watching a thriller, the audience might know that a murderer is lurking behind a darkened doorway, and this knowledge imbues
the scene where the heroine slowly and obliviously approaches that doorway with a great deal of dramatic tension as a result. When the author of a work chooses to indirectly
reference information that is known to the audience but not to a particular character, this is often called "dramatic irony", and is one of the most frequent and common uses
of irony in literature. This paper will explore the use of dramatic irony in two separate literary works, Sophocles classical play, "Oedipus the King" and the 20th century novel by
Fugard, "Master Harold and the Boys". By analyzing the similarities in how irony is used in the two works, written thousands of years apart, one can gain insights into the
most essential and timeless features of irony, developing a better overall understanding of the device and its effective usage. Before the particular works are examined, however, it can be
useful to attempt a brief examination of the concept of irony in literature as a whole. The reason why irony is so popular as a literary device is because irony
is "generally funnier, more criticizing, more expressive of a difference between expected and ensuing events and more protective of the speaker than literal remarks" (Colston & OBrien, 2000). For instance,
supposing that an author wished to convey the idea that a line one was waiting in was long, he or she might have a character express this in a literal
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