Instruction 3-3

Characters Traits | Literary Devices | Ambiguities, Subtleties, Ironies | Describe the Functions of Soliloquies, Asides | Summary

Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn't frighten me at all
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
                                - from “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me At All” by Maya Angelou

Read the excerpt from the poem above. Do you think the speaker (the one who is talking) in the poem is really not frightened, or do you think she is at least a little afraid?

You can tell by the way the way that the speaker describes scary things that they probably really do scare her. Maybe she is trying to pretend like they don’t, to put on a brave front either for herself or for others.

Irony is a discrepancy, or disagreement, of some sort. Irony implies incongruity. Incongruity means that something is not right—it’s incompatible; it clashes. Incongruity creates tension in a story. Sometimes it’s humorous, and sometimes it’s serious, but it always has an effect on the reader.

In literature, there are three kinds of irony:

Verbal irony is the difference between what someone says and what he or she really means. Sarcasm is a strong form of verbal irony that is calculated to hurt someone through, for example, false praise.

Situational irony is the difference between what you would logically think is going to happen and what actually happens. It is ironic for a firehouse to burn down or for a police station to be burglarized.

Dramatic irony is the difference between what a character believes or says and what the reader or audience member knows to be true.

Now that you know a little about these three kinds of irony, what kind of irony do you think the author is using in the poem above?

If the speaker is saying she’s not afraid, when in fact she really is afraid, then the author is using verbal irony.

Why would an author use irony? Irony is actually a powerful tool, because it emphasizes the point an author is trying to make. If the poem above just contained statements like, “I’m afraid of the dark and of strange sounds in the hall,” it wouldn’t have the same effect on the reader. The fact that the speaker is trying to hide her fear adds a whole new interesting layer.

Irony can create tension and excitement in a story. Have you ever watched a movie when something completely unexpected—a twist—happens? Maybe the person that you thought was definitely innocent turns out to be the guilty person. This is situational irony, and authors use it to make their stories more thrilling and intriguing.

Sometimes an author will be purposefully vague about how the reader should interpret a word, phrase, action, or situation in the story or poem. This is called ambiguity, and like irony, it can make a story richer or more interesting.

The simplest kind of ambiguity is the pun, which intentionally uses one word to mean two different things, usually with a comic effect. For instance, when the character Mercutio lies dying in Romeo and Juliet he says, "Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man," with two meanings attached to the word "grave."

When an author uses ambiguity on purpose, it can have a great effect. However, sometimes a person doesn’t mean to be ambiguous, and the results can be confusing, to say the least.

For example, if a man says to his girlfriend, "I'll give you a ring tomorrow," this could signify either the promise of a gift of jewelry or merely an intention to telephone. This use of a double-meaning word is not ambiguity, it’s vagueness. Vagueness has no purpose. It’s confusing and should be avoided.

In literature, ambiguity can be found when the audience can interpret a situation in more than one way. Usually the author doesn’t ever clear up the ambiguity because he or she wants the audience to get beneath the surface and try to figure it out for themselves.

Sometimes a writer uses subtlety to emphasize a point. Something that is subtle is something that is not obvious—it is more hidden. Think about a movie like “The Blair Witch Project.” In this movie you don’t actually see violence, but it is much scarier because you don’t. The fear is left to the viewer’s imagination.

Advertisers use subtlety all of the time. Think of a commercial that shows a surfer or snowboarder out on his board, and in the next scene he is enjoying a certain soft drink. The ad doesn’t say it outright, but it implies that adventurous, cool people drink this soft drink.

Like irony and ambiguity, subtlety is a very powerful tool.

Now read this poem by Carol Morris:

Song

You're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam,
aiming across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean
You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across the country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely
If I'm lonely it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawn's first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep
If I'm lonely
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning

In this poem, the writer talks about being lonely, but the images she describes are not lonely at all. They are alone but not at all lonely. Instead, they enjoy being alone. Contradiction implies the opposite or denial of something. Writers use contradiction, like they use irony, to emphasize their point.

As we discussed earlier, good writers focus on creating images that communicate emotion rather than simply telling what they are feeling. Tools like irony, incongruity, ambiguity, subtlety, and contradiction, help them do this.

Links for Students, Parents and Teachers

Now let's do Practice Exercise 3-3 (top).

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