(5) Situational Irony:
Situational Irony occurs in literature and in drama when persons and events come together in improbable situations, creating a tension between expected and real results. An example of this would be a scene where a man and woman are sitting at a bus stop and start to converse. The woman divulges some of her deepest darkest secrets. The man listens and advises her, and the woman thanks him and gets on her bus. After she is gone the man takes off his heavy coat to reveal that he is in fact wearing the garb of a priest. The irony lies in the fact that the woman never knew that the man she was talking to was a priest, but the audience does and the reality of what the audience knows about why the man was so helpful and understanding is different from the reality the woman experienced.
Situational irony results from recognizing the oddness or unfairness of a given situation, be it positive or negative. Even though a person typically cannot justifiably explain this unfairness logically, the coincidental nature of the situation is still very obvious to those evaluating it. For example, if the president of Microsoft, Bill Gates, were to win a contest whose grand prize was a computer system, the irony would be situational because such a circumstance would appear ridiculous or "funny" for a number of reasons. Bill Gates doesn't need a computer, he runs the world's largest software company, and he's filthy rich, so winning a computer seems silly and "ironic". This list of half-justified reasons for the oddness of the situation could go on and on but on a very basic level of reasoning all these reasons do really add up. All can be logically rebutted. Bill Gates has just as much chance of winning a contest like that as anyone else who entered. A computer is a great prize to wins, etc. The true "oddness" cannot be explained logically, even though everyone would find that particular situation weird, funny, and "ironic". This sense of being "unfair" or "unfortunate" is a trademark of situational irony. The unusual nature of the circumstances is obvious to everyone and yet, they are not wholly clear when you try to explicate them. Typically the justification for situational irony boils down to someone declaring, "Well, it just is!"
2.2 Irony in Pride and Prejudice
As we all know that the reason Pride and Prejudice can exceed the ordinary fictions and rank the top in the world is that Irony is used lively throughout the whole story. While reading this novel, readers can get feelings of relax and funny through Irony and the author’s sense of humor. Moreover, some hints of life and marriage can also be got from it. Now, let’s discuss and enjoy irony used in this novel together.
(1) The beginning sentences of the novel:
From the very beginning of the story, the author uses a so-called truth to start expressing his ironic attitude towards marriage in the society of that time.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
“However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters.”
From the sentences above, readers may firstly get information that any single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife, which is apparently conveyed by the author. However, read and think deeply, this is just an irony that the author used in order to convey an opposite meaning. The real meaning of these sentences is that women educated well but without a good fortune would always want to marry a husband that has a good fortune, they treat it as the only way to get rid of their humble status. Here in the story, instead of expressing it out directly, the author uses irony to indirectly优-文^论,文.网http://www.youerw.com deliver this message to readers. By doing this, she intends to satirize marriage in the society of that era. At that time, marriages mostly base on money and interest. After thinking deeply and finally getting the author’s real meaning, certainly we always can’t help laughing and getting deeper impression. Its effect is much better than that of expressing it directly. This is the effect of using irony, much funnier, more impressive, more outstanding effect of irony.
(2) Mr. Bennett:
At the beginning of the novel, we can know that Mr. Bennett has a peculiar characteristic and he likes to make jokes on droll people around him, especially his wife who is light in the head.
For example, at the beginning of the novel, when Mr. Bennett refuses to visit Mr. Bingley, Mrs. Bennett is very angry:
“Mr. Bennett, how can you abuse your own children in such a way……”
“You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.”
Mr. Bennett is a moody woman, she complain again that her husband doesn’t respect her nerves. Mr. Bennett’s reply is fully ironic, he states that he “have a high respect for
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