Type of Irony Example Purpose Effectiveness
Situational Irony An old classmate made His purpose was to con- Although he is trying to
a post on Twitter about vince others to stay off send a positive mes-
how social media is a social media and enjoy sage, it is not effective
waste of time. living life. because he is using so-
cial media, something
he criticizes, to send his
message and is not tak-
ing his own advice.
Verbal Irony I accidentally deleted an The purpose of me say- This use of irony was ef-
important document off ing this statement was fective because saying
my laptop and said “this to convey my frustration. this definitely helped to
is great.” I was obviously not abate my frustration.
happy about deleting
the document, but I
made the joke in an at-
tempt to calm myself
down.
Verbal Irony My mother and I were My mother’s purpose for My mother’s use of
cleaning off the dining making this remark was irony added some hu-
room table after dinner to try to lighten the mor to the situation. We
when she broke a plate. mood. Obviously, break- were not happy about
She then exclaimed, ing a plate is not lucky, the plate being broken,
“this must be my lucky but she was just trying but this joke my mother
day.” to take the tension out made gave us some-
of the situation. thing to laugh about.
Situational Irony In “The Necklace” by Maupassant used irony The purpose of this
Guy de Maupassant, the to convey the main irony is to convey the
main character Mathilde theme of the story: be- theme of being satisfied
Loisel borrows and later ing satisfied with what with what you have. If
loses a what she as- you have. Mathilde Loisel had
sumes to be an expen- been happy with what
sive necklace from a she had, there would
friend. She and her hus- have been no need to
band work years in an borrow the necklace in
attempt to replace it, the first place, which
only to later find out the would have saved her
original necklace was and her husband many
fake. years of hard work.
Without this use of irony,
the author would have
not been able to get this
message across to the
reader.
Verbal Irony The other day we had a My friend obviously did My friend’s use of irony
large rainstorm. When I not think it was a nice was effective because it
walked out of the store day out. She used irony offered some humor to
This study source was downloaded by 100000858936669 from CourseHero.com on 01-19-2023 01:12:44 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/49970357/0504-Thats-So-Ironicdocx/
Situational Irony An old classmate made His purpose was to con- Although he is trying to
a post on Twitter about vince others to stay off send a positive mes-
how social media is a social media and enjoy sage, it is not effective
waste of time. living life. because he is using so-
cial media, something
he criticizes, to send his
message and is not tak-
ing his own advice.
Verbal Irony I accidentally deleted an The purpose of me say- This use of irony was ef-
important document off ing this statement was fective because saying
my laptop and said “this to convey my frustration. this definitely helped to
is great.” I was obviously not abate my frustration.
happy about deleting
the document, but I
made the joke in an at-
tempt to calm myself
down.
Verbal Irony My mother and I were My mother’s purpose for My mother’s use of
cleaning off the dining making this remark was irony added some hu-
room table after dinner to try to lighten the mor to the situation. We
when she broke a plate. mood. Obviously, break- were not happy about
She then exclaimed, ing a plate is not lucky, the plate being broken,
“this must be my lucky but she was just trying but this joke my mother
day.” to take the tension out made gave us some-
of the situation. thing to laugh about.
Situational Irony In “The Necklace” by Maupassant used irony The purpose of this
Guy de Maupassant, the to convey the main irony is to convey the
main character Mathilde theme of the story: be- theme of being satisfied
Loisel borrows and later ing satisfied with what with what you have. If
loses a what she as- you have. Mathilde Loisel had
sumes to be an expen- been happy with what
sive necklace from a she had, there would
friend. She and her hus- have been no need to
band work years in an borrow the necklace in
attempt to replace it, the first place, which
only to later find out the would have saved her
original necklace was and her husband many
fake. years of hard work.
Without this use of irony,
the author would have
not been able to get this
message across to the
reader.
Verbal Irony The other day we had a My friend obviously did My friend’s use of irony
large rainstorm. When I not think it was a nice was effective because it
walked out of the store day out. She used irony offered some humor to
This study source was downloaded by 100000858936669 from CourseHero.com on 01-19-2023 01:12:44 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/49970357/0504-Thats-So-Ironicdocx/
