Dramatic irony is when the audience or reader knows the words and actions of the characters in a

In “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare adds dramatic irony throughout the story to add suspense and tension. Dramatic irony is when the readers know what is going to happen but the characters, however, do not. While reading, readers tend to become irritated at the characters actions because they know how the play is going to end. In Act IV, Shakespeare adds multiple situations of dramatic irony that makes the readers feel a sense of displeasure. What the characters don't know, is that their misinterpretations of the situation will lead to a sorrowful outcome.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

Shakespeare uses numerous literary devices such as dramatic irony throughout the play. Even though all of these examples are different, they all share the same central idea. The central idea of these examples of dramatic irony is the love that Romeo and Juliet express towards each other. An example of dramatic irony from the play occurs towards the end of Act three. This is when Lady Capulet and Juliet discuss the conflict of Romeo and Tybalt. Lady Capulet thinks that Juliet is crying because Romeo killed Tybalt. Romeo killed Juliet’s cousin, after Tybalt had killed Romeo’s good friend Mercutio, right in front of him. However, it is evident to the audience that Juliet is crying over Romeo because he has been banished from Verona, for

    The existence of considerable irony within the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet is a fact recognized by most literary critics. This paper will examine the play for instances of irony and their interpretation by critics.

Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. Willy thinks that

In the play Othello, Shakespeare uses many literary devices to help the reader understand the theme of the story. One of those many literary devices used in the play, is the wide range of irony. Throughout the pages of the book the reader will see the use of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony. Shakespeare does not use irony in an understated way, it is very direct, and can be found on almost every page of the book. The use of irony creates suspense, and adds interest as to what will happen.

Throughout Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet’s emotions, actions, and thoughts cause much trouble during the play. Hamlet encounters stages of sarcasm, inanity, suicidal tendencies/self-deprecation, and procreation/indecision which develop not only his personality but the play itself. Hamlet uses sarcasm to express his emotions, pretends to be insane (ultimately leading him to become truly insane), self-deprecates throughout the play due to family events, and procrastinates because he is indecisive. Hamlet encounters many life-altering events throughout the play such as his uncle poisoning his father and quickly remarrying Hamlet’s mother, to accidentally killing Polonius thinking it was Claudius, all the way to debating upon: his own

-Shakespeare employs dramatic irony in many of his tragedies, so that the audience is engaged, and so they are able to witness characters errors in their action, predict the fate of the characters, and experience feelings of tragedy and grief.

In the first scene of Act II, Ophelia illustrates Hamlet's appearance to her father. She describes him by saying how he has “a look so piteous in purport / As if he had been loosed out of hell” (II.i.82-83). Polonius interprets Hamlet's state as him being madly in love with Ophelia; however, Hamlet is upset over his father's death and his mother for marrying Claudius. This is an example of dramatic irony because while the audience knows the real reason as to why Hamlet is upset, Polonius does not.

Although some authors will claim Hamlet was actually mad, he is evidently a brilliant strategist shown in his use of verbal irony, his manipulation of Ophelia, and his determination to avenge his father. Throughout the play Prince Hamlet’s use of verbal irony is clear, shown first when he is asked why he is so

Just as Claudius is not completely evil, Hamlet faces a moral ambiguity that points to more of an anti-hero protagonist rather than the traditional tragic hero. Hamlet retains his stance of innocence while sustaining injurious harm to his moral being. In the beginning of the play, his remarks to both the King and Queen are scathingly bitter; “’Seems’ madam? Nay it is. I know not ‘seems’” (1.2.76). He is repulsed by the disillusionment of court life and those who pretend that all is well. Hamlet mocks them with his sharp-tongued question of ‘seems madam?’ He aspires for them to be as self-aware as he is of how false they all are. However, he soon enters and begins to understand this world of deceit and lies. In John Seaman’s essay The Blind Curtain and Hamlet’s Guilt, he writes: “Hamlet learns that the world is not evil, but rather, that there is evil in the world and that he has betrayed himself to it” (353). Hamlet in Act 1 does not understand the pretense of seeming and hidden motives. He is only familiar with the intellectual isolation of school where everything is black and white. Consequently, his sudden plunge into a world that is morally grayer than black or white is startling and tumultuous. He believes he is ultimately good as Claudius, his enemy, is evil. However, Hamlet is responsible for the deaths of four characters. Hamlet reveals a naïve ignorance of reality when he romanticizes his father and again through his mother’s love for his father: “so excellent a

Hamlet is one of the play’s I’ve read throughout this course and I’ve gained many insights as to what dramatic irony could be. Moreover, I was able to make connections with American Gangster and Hamlet because the audience had a better idea of what was happening more than the characters. This is because, in American Gangster, Frank Lucas didn’t know that the police, Richard Robert’s, was trying to uncover Frank’s heroin business. Hamlet also includes a dramatic irony when the audience realized it was Hamlet’s uncle that killed the king. Through the Dramatic irony, it established a suspenseful effect that influenced me to continue

The main character, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. He is described as daring, brave, loyal, and intelligent, but he is consumed by his own thoughts. Whenever the crisis was on Hamlet’s way, he always tried to solve it in his way without any helps around him. Hamlet was locked up in his own world and I think this led him to be an intelligent character. The best example of his intelligence is the fact that he convinces others that he has become mad when in fact he has not. Hamlet acted like he was mad because he did not want to outright kill Claudius, because he would probably go to heaven, and Hamlet wanted to make Claudius suffer like he had made Hamlet’s father suffer.

Shakespeare delves into Hamlet’s complex psychological struggle by examining the tension between his desire for revenge, his intense grief and his quest to honour the memory of his father. In Act 1, Scene 2 the symbolic use of black in “Tis not alone my inky cloak…nor customary suits of solemn black,” denotes Hamlet’s intense loss and grief. Ironically, Claudius, the usurper of the natural order, attempts to counsel Hamlet, asserting in his accumulative statement that excessive grief, “shows a will most incorrect