English Literature

Many people have problems with irony, both in their everyday lives and as it is used or deployed in literature. We learn early on at school about "dramatic irony", that is, we are told, when the audience of a play is aware of some situation or circumstance, or has information that one or more characters in the play do not. If you like, you are sharing a secret with the writer you are in the know. Perhaps as you go about your daily business, irony is not so clear-cut. Here's an example: your neighbor draws your attention to how lovely the dandelions and daisies growing in your lawn are. Now, for someone not familiar with the care and attention many English people give to their gardens, this might need a bit of explanation. Lawns are grass and are cut and rolled regularly so that a professional golfer can practice his putting on it. Daisies and dandelions are weeds. For a moment, but just for a moment, you wonder how serious your neighbor is being. Does he really think the weeds are lovely or is he telling you in a rather superior way that you're a lousy gardener? The irony, however, usually needs an audience; and not only does it need some people to get the point, but it also very much needs there to be people who don't. There is, it has to be said, a rather undemocratic air of superiority about it.