Essays On Irony

In ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney and ‘The Lesson’ by Edward Lucie-Smith a similar impact is achieved through alternative means; Heaney uses language to set up a contrast whereas Lucie-Smith uses irony. Both techniques are striking and subtly interwoven throughout the poems, in order to describe the devastating theme of death from a child’s perspective. […]

Without the prologue, the tale could in itself be seen as amusing and seems to “impregnate the mordant venom” (Bronson) of the prologue. The merchant is characterised as an intensely embittered bridegroom, telling an intensely bitter story. The juxtaposition of the “faire fresshe” May with the “olde” and unmistakably ugly Januarie disgusts many a reader. […]

In regards to the departure of the soldiers, Owen and Tynan offer contrasting presentations and s ignificantly different moods can be observed in their respective poems. The poem ‘Joining the Colours’ sets the tone from its title, as Tynan’s use of the verb ‘joining’ suggests that the soldiers believed they were merely becoming part of […]

The poems ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘Reservist’ by Boey Kim Cheng both explore the theme of war and destruction. Through the use of techniques such as structure, imagery, irony, and literary devices, the poets convey their views on dehumanisation and the devastating effects of war. In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth,’ Owen […]

During the 19th century in Paris, people were trying to improve their status in order to gain more respect and superiority. Guy de Maupassant’s short story, The Necklace, follows the unfortunate life of a vain middle-class woman named Mathilde Loisel. Maupassant maintains the reader’s interest by applying irony, an engrossing theme and ordinary human characters […]

Alan Bennett’s characters (in Lady of Letters, Her Big Chance and Bed Among the Lentils) possess similar qualities of being ‘ordinary, uneventful and desperate’ as their lives can be viewed as being dull, mundane and monotonous. Using dramatic monologue, not only is Bennett able to explore the different aspects of life, but also make it […]

Alan Bennett’s ‘A Lady of letters’ is a dramatic monologue written for the BBC as a part of the ‘Talking Heads’ series. It focuses on an ordinary middle aged woman named Irene Ruddock. She expresses her views on society and the people she sees’s in her everyday life. There is only one point of view […]

The national figure for homelessness is a staggering 169000 people, 80000 of them in London alone. Tony Parsons and John Pilger are two men with different views on this crisis. Tony Parsons strictly believes that the beggars are worthless individuals who beg for no acceptable reason whereas John Pilger is far more sympathetic and believes […]

Karl Marx once said, “The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people”. Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World depicts a utopia that has come to completely rely on technology to run their world. This advanced and civilized world has made living thoughtless. Citizens look to Henry Ford as a deity […]

Written in 1945 by J.B. Priesley, the play An Inspector Calls is set in 1912 just before the Great War. This was a time of very great tension, especially between England and Germany, yet the British aristocracy still felt optimistic for the near future. There are frequent references to the war during the opening section […]

‘The Importance of being Earnest’ is a comical play. The characters and the plot are both comical, but the play may be best described as a social comedy, a comedy of manors. Wilde uses many comic devices to make the play funny but I think the main focus is on using irony in this particular […]

Disguise is a popular method that Shakespeare uses which supports dramatic irony to inject humour into the play, where the audience members are aware of something (in this case the true identity of the characters) that characters in the play are not. This of course creates tension in the play and excites the audience as […]

The setting in Hedda Gabler is unchanged, and that contributes to the fact that it is a psychological drama. This means that Hedda Gabler was staged in one area, and the only changing factors were the characters and the interactions they had with one another. Also, the fact that the household was a clear example […]

‘Night of the Scorpion’ is a poem by Nissim Ezekiel that utilizes Indian English to capture the essence of Indian culture and ideology. The poet employs the ‘Poetry of Situation’ style to depict the selfless maternal reaction when bitten by a scorpion – ‘Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children’. This […]

In The Visit, Friedrich Durrenmatt uses irony and theatrical devices to convey the corruption of the town through greed and power of money. Durrenmatt uses irony to show how the want for instant wealth can lead to the corruption of the entire town, mainly by the degrading of the ethical standards of the citizens. The […]

Irony is a humorous or mildly sarcastic use of words to mean the opposite of what is said. Irony can be used in a satirical, humorous or sarcastic manner. It can be used to indirectly put a message across to someone as a joke. In Austen’s books the characters sometimes valued irony because that is […]

Dario Fo explores the play between power, truth and knowledge, delving into their relation with violence, through the theatrical devices of farce, burlesque, irony and slapstick comedy. He once said] you could instead simply say, “To quote Fo… ” “he once said ” sounds quite informal. , “Comedy makes the subversion of the existing state […]

Q1 – “A Barred Owl” vs. “The History Teacher” Essay – Draft 2 “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins both have adults lying to children. A childish tone is given off in “A Barred Owl” that helps the reader relate to the child’s fear while an ironic and […]

“Don’t Tread on Me” Edgar Allan Poe was a man like no other; he lived a life of full of hardships, from his parents dying at a young age and his foster parents disowning him to marrying his cousin and never settling down in one place. Poe had a unique and tumultuous life full of […]

Drinking underage is not something a person jokes about; but Frank O’Connor story “The Drunkard” is a story about Larry, a kid, who gets drunk, but does it for a good cause. In the story O’Connor uses first person point of view, irony and humor to make this story more entertaining. The narrator is Larry […]

Irony and surprise are common literary devices authors use to communicate their ideas when writing literary works. Irony allows the writer to suggest an interpretation that is different from the literal meaning of the words used in the text. The element of surprise allows the writer to manipulate the reader’s expectations and take them somewhere […]

ENG-3U Exam Review Literary Devices Simile: a general comparison, using like or as, of two things thought to be different from each other in nature. Example: “Jason could run like a racehorse”. Metaphor: an implied comparison of two things generally thought to be different from each other, generally expressed in a statement. Example: “And Juliet […]