Ironic Vs. Tragic
The other day I was listening to Alanis Morissette’s song “Ironic” - the musical Jagged Little Pill version. It makes me chuckle because the character is singing the song in a school class and one of the students says, "Hold up, wait a second! That's actually not ironic." It got me thinking to how often we label something as ironic when it really isn't.
Per the Oxford dictionary, Ironic means "happening in the opposite way to what is expected, and typically causing wry amusement." There are three common irony types: verbal (says one thing but means another), situational (discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually occurs) and dramatic (where the audience knows more about the situation than the characters).
Most of Alanis's examples involve dramatic irony, though they also have a touch of tragedy; hence, the comical element to the quote above. Tragedies often use irony to enhance their dramatic impact, as Alanis does in the following examples:
"An old man turned 98- He won the lottery and died the next day."
" Mr. Play-It-Safe was afraid to fly - He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye - He waited his whole damn life to take that flight - And as the plane crashed down he thought,
"Well isn't this nice"- And isn't it ironic."
I did some searching and found some additional irony examples (some are from movies, books, a quick ChatGPT search, and some are my own):
The apple that puts Snow White into a deep sleep is dramatic irony, because the audience knows that the Wicked Stepmother cursed the apple, but Snow White does not.
A girl who gets amazing grades in her College Math & Language Arts classes but gets rejected from the College Education program.
The Titanic was advertised as an "unsinkable" ship, yet it famously sank after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage .
A woman who gets her dream job and two weeks later her dog dies.
Dorothy spends the entirety of the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz wishing and hoping that she could go home to Kansas. In the end, it turned out to have all been a dream, and she had never left home all along.
A veteran who goes into liver failure, receives a liver and dies three weeks later.
The audience is led to believe that Dr. Malcolm Crowe is alive and helping young Cole Sear in the film the Sixth Sense, yet Crowe is actually dead.
A bookstore named “The Book Haven” that has no books on its shelves, only selling coffee and pastries.
A female that decides she's ready to give a casual fling a real shot and then the man ghosts her.
The audience knows Juliet is not dead when Romeo finds her and, believing she is, takes his own life.
A member of PETA wears leather shoes.
A fitness trainer who promotes a healthy lifestyle and exercise regimen but never works out themselves.
The audience knows that Mulan is a woman, while the rest of the other men in the military do not.
Who knew one song could make you think so much about a word definition. Regardless, I had fun going down the irony rabbit hole. Do you have any favorite examples of irony from your personal experiences, favorite film or book? Do share.