Isn't it ironic?

Ah, irony. A technique we all love to invoke, but that is so very often misapplied. We call lots of things ironic—a surfeit of spoons when you need a knife, a downpour on the one single day you needed sunshine, a voucher for something you already paid for. But are these things really ironic, or just unfortunate? And if this isn't irony, what is?

To start with, we need to clarify what we're talking about a little. We use the word "irony" to refer to different concepts, and in writing irony can be used in different ways. Let's get into what they all are...

Situational irony

Mostly, when people talk about irony in casual conversation they use it to describe a very particularly coincidental (and often unpleasant) situation; this could be anything from all of the pens on your desk being dried up to being shipwrecked several times over before dying quietly at home of pneumonia. Now, according to the definitions listed in the Oxford dictionary, an ironic situation is one which "seems deliberately contrary to what was or might be expected", or could be described as "cruelly, humorously, or strangely at odds with assumptions or expectations".

This means that in order for a situation to truly be ironic, there must be some sort of expectation that is being subverted. So a wise general coming onto the field with every advantage and a winning track record suffering a surprise defeat would be ironic, but if the general was less experienced and lost because his ego drowned out the advice of his supporters it wouldn't really be ironic, because the only person being surprised in that situation would be the foolish general himself. So while we can't stop people from labelling whatever situations they like with the word irony, it pays to consider whether what you're describing is, in fact, ironic, or just rather unfortunate.

Irony as a literary device

When we talk about irony as a technique in writing, though (as opposed to a plot device), it is usually with a much more specific definition. In this setting, irony is when the words being said are different to what the speaker is communicating—sarcasm, for instance. Here are a few examples of irony in action:

It was a swell day for a picnic: bucketing with rain, and howling with a southerly wind.

Irma emerged from the dressing room in the most heinous neon dress I'd ever seen in my life, so naturally I told her she looked absolutely stunning and to buy the thing right away.

"Dreadful news," said Benji's boss, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to promote you."

It is perhaps important to note that when using irony, the context that communicates the intended meaning needs to be clear, and it needs to be understood by the reader. One difficulty in reading older texts is that we the readers are so far divorced from the social context in which the story was written that we may not know whether to take a statement at face value or not (this has led to a lot of... interesting misrepresentation of Shakespeare quotes).

Irony as tone

Irony can also be expanded to the entire piece of work, working its way into its tone. One very prominent example of this is satire, where the content is exaggerated to make a point; what is said and done is not intended to be taken at face value. One of literature's most famous satires is Jonathan Swift's essay A Modest Proposal, in which Swift suggests that his fellow Irishmen could resolve both the systemic poverty and concerns of overpopulation in the country by selling their children to wealthy elites as food. Obviously, Swift did not actually support the idea of cannibalism, but the tone of the essay is in deadly earnest—so much so that the reader is invited to sympathise with the Irish populace when, perhaps, they had not previously done so.

Tonal irony might also manifest itself as a wink and a nod to the audience. Consider modern superhero movies: the very premise of a superhero is unserious and a little bit outrageous, requiring a huge suspension of disbelief, but recent films have been doing their best to make twenty-first century heroes human, relatable, and cool. When your gritty, hypermasculine protagonist is iconic entirely for dressing in brightly-coloured tights or with an overwhelming animal theme, however, you can't help but introduce a disconnect.

Dramatic irony

There is also another, very distinct type of irony that you can find in narrative fiction: dramatic irony. This is when the reader or audience is privy to some information that the characters are not, through narration, context, or other character viewpoints. Here are some examples of how dramatic irony might be set up:

• The narration of the text tells the reader something that the characters could not possibly know, such as the planet being slated for destruction in half an hour.
• A historical scene where the characters make predictions of the future that are wildly different to what we know actually happens, e.g. saying in 1923 that the Great War was awfully terrible, but at least we know better than to get into something like that again.
• Character A is busy making plans in one part of the city, but Character B is over on the other side of town unknowingly making their own plans which will inevitably interfere with Character A.

However the dramatic irony is delivered, the effect is that the readers or audience can see ahead to an outcome that the characters cannot and will not anticipate, creating a strong sense of inevitability and suspense. This technique is frequently used to develop an undercurrent of dread or unease, but in more lighthearted genres like romcoms it can instead build a more hopeful sort of excitement.

However you decide to use it, irony can be a very useful tool for affecting, or even manipulating, how your readers or audience perceive the story or message you're giving them. Use the comment section below to tell me about some times you've found irony to be effective in something you've read or watched!