Irony is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says and what is generally understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history). Irony may also arise from a discordance between acts and results, especially if it is striking, and seen by an outside audience. Irony is understood as an aesthetic evaluation by an audience, which relies on a sharp discordance between the real and the ideal, and which is variously applied to texts, speech, events, acts, and even fashion. All the different senses of irony revolve around the perceived notion of an incongruity, or a gap between an understanding of reality, or expectation of a reality, and what actually happens.
There are different kinds of irony. For example:
Tragic (or dramatic) irony occurs when a character on stage or in a story is ignorant, but the audience watching knows his or her eventual fate, as in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.
Socratic irony takes place when someone (classically a teacher) pretends to be foolish or ignorant, to expose the ignorance of another (and the teaching-audience, but not the student-victim, realizes the teacher's plot).
Cosmic irony is when a higher being or force interferes in a character's life, creating ironic settings.
N L Fowler|N.L Fowler]], in Modern English Usage, says of irony:
Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders' incomprehension.[1]
Irony threatens authoritative models of discourse by "removing the semantic security of 'one signifier : one signified'";[2][3] irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker's perception of paradox which arises from insoluble problems.
The connection between irony and humor is somewhat revealed when the surprise at what should have expected startles us into laughter. However, not all irony is humorous: "grim irony" and "stark irony" are familiar.
