Dramatic Irony in Hardy’s novels

Name: jumani pooja k

Paper: 405 Thomas Hardy as novelist

Topic:   Dramatic Irony in Hardy’s novels

Roll no: 16

M.A:part 2

Sem: 4

year:2012-13

Submitted to

Dr Dilip Barad

Department of English

M.K.  Bhavnagar University

Dramatic Irony in Hardy’s novels

Thomas Hardy great writer in his time Victorian age and he wrote many novels and poems and he use Dramatic Irony in his novel basically, it's when the reader knows more about what's going on than the characters, and they see the meaning or truth where the characters do not.

Thomas Hardy’s novels   

·       Tess of the D’ Urbervilles

·       Two on the tower

·       The return of the native

·       The Mayor of the Casterbridge

·       Well beloved

This all fives novels he greats works and he use irony of difference way.  Hardy put simple things but the meaning is difference 

The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin.

The word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie. It derives from the Latin ironie and ultimately from the Greek eirōneía, meaning dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected

           Types of irony

·       Verbal irony

·       Situation irony

·       Dramatic irony

Tomas hardy use that kind of irony. But he mostly use Dramatic irony and hi was brilliant of that work. 

Dramatic irony, which itself is a little ironic since I've discovered I love first person. Harder to pull of dramatic irony when there's only one.

        Verbal irony

 Verbal irony is a disparity of expression and intention: when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect. An example of this is when someone says "Oh, that's beautiful", when what he means (probably conveyed by intonation) is he finds "that" quite ugly.

     Situation irony  

 Situational irony is the disparity of intention and result; when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect. Being

"shot with one's own gun" or "hoisted with one's own  peterd are popular formulations of the basic idea of situation irony.

 Dramatic irony

 Dramatic irony is a disparity of awareness between actor and observer: when words and actions possess significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not; for example when a character says to another "I'll see you tomorrow!" when the audience (but not the character) knows that the character will die before morning.

Now, here's where dramatic irony can be super fun. You can show issues going on in all three POVs, but since they each only get a piece of the puzzle, the reader can start to put the whole picture together before the characters know what's going on. Readers will see that Jack discovering there's a ship out there attacking folks is true, but it's not the ship he thinks it is. Miranda sees the overall span of the problem, so readers know it's not just Xitic and her ship. Xitic gets enough details to prove her ship is not the one doing the attacking.
Create dramatic irony by having your characters get the exact opposite of what they wanted. For instance, the young woman who swore she’d only marry a rich man ends up falling in love with a poor one.

Thomas hardy use dramatic irony the irony is seen throughout the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

For Example

Situational: Alec's father added the name D'Urberville to Stokes-Tess doesn't know this
Tess is uneducated compared to Angel, and yet is the true modern thinker

Dramatic: Angel's hypocritical reaction to Tess's confession about her tragedy
Mrs. Clare's acceptance of Tess right as Tess and Angel separate

The Mayor of Casterbridge Irony and Meaning English Literature Essay

The mayor of Casterbridge, which is written by Thomas hardy, describes a character by the name of Michael Henchard who becomes successful as a mayor. He later becomes bankrupt and is also affected by his lover's tragic death. The mayor of casterbridge is a story that shows how fate cannot be conquered by people, although most people believe to be in control of their own destinies.Irony is the expectation between what is uttered or said to what is meant. There are many types of irony and they include; verbal, situational, comic, socratic, historical, dramatic, tragic and fate irony.

Fate is natural and irony is a part of fate; without irony then the
fate in Hardy's novels and poetry would be left empty of meaning and
also of interest. Irony and fate are tangled together in a complex web
where they mutually rely on each other and would disintegrate without
the other for support. Irony's importance is no greater and no less
than the importance of fate in Hardy's novels and it is irony and fate
together that make Hardy's work compelling to read and study.