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How Does Shakespeare Use Dramatic Irony In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Irony is used in some of the most famous plays and dramas. Shakespeare used all three types of irony in his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are three different types of irony, verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal irony is when someone says the opposite of what they mean or basically being sarcastic. Situational irony is when something happens that is the opposite of what you were expecting. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something more than the characters do.
The first type of irony in this play is verbal irony. He uses this type of irony when Helena says, “ . . . I am your spaniel .” (2.1 196-197) she isn’t actually calling herself his dog, she just means that she is always following him around and chasing after him. …show more content…

Shakespeare would usually use verbal irony to express how the characters feel.
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The second type of irony he uses is situational irony. He uses this type of irony when originally Theseus was going to have Hernia killed if she married Lysander instead of Demetrius.
“You’ll either be executed or you’ll never see another man again.” (1.1 65) In the end of the play
Hermia is allowed to marry Lysander because Demetrious fell in love with Helena. There is also situational irony when Demetrious falls in love with Helena because in the beginning he hated her and he wanted her to leave her alone, but in the end he ended up marrying Helena instead of
Hermia. In conclusion to this, Shakespeare uses situational irony to make plot twists in his play.
Lastly, he uses dramatic irony in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He uses this type of irony when Bottom didn’t know that he had the head of a donkey. He says, “Why are you running away . . . ?” (3.1 55-56) There was also dramatic irony when Helena thought that Lysander and
Demetrious were making fun of her but really Puck mixed up who he was supposed to make who fall in love with who and that they were just in love with her. Using this information, he

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