situation where a character is unaware of something the audience knows
plot device in which a character holds a position or has an expectation that is reversed or fulfilled in a way that the character did not expect but that we, as readers or as audience members, have anticipated because our knowledge of events or individuals is more complete than the char-acter's.
The situation when the audience knows something the characters don't, as in Shakespeare's Macbeth, when King Duncan remarks on his inability to judge character - while warmly greeting the man (Macbeth) we already know plans to assassinate him.
(theater) irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play
a series of contradictions between what character do or say and what the audience or reader know to be true
situation in which the reader knows something the characters do not
A device whereby the audience (or reader) understands more of a situation or of what is being said than the character is aware of. Such speech or action has great significance to the audience or reader and little significance to the character speaking or performing the action.
this occurs when a reader knows things a character is ignorant of or when characters’ speech and action reveals that they do not understand themselves.
A situation in which the audience or reader shares with the author knowledge of present or future circumstances of which a character is ignorant.
The attitude that arises when a situation appears in one light to a character in a play, but in quite a different light to other characters or to the audience. The most obvious instance of this is in cases of mistaken identity, as when, in The Comedy of Errors*, twins are confused. Dramatic irony may add to tragic power, as when the understanding audience watches Oedipus drive unwittingly to his doom. Three attitudes upon which the dramatist can play are Surprise, Sus- pense, and Dramatic Irony. Surprise, taking the audience unawares, is the least lastingly effective. Shakespeare uses it seldom; once, when Othello tells how he took the turban'd Turk by the throat and stabbed him -- thus! -- as he kills himself. Some modern mystery plays have borne program requests not to tell their ending, lest the pleasure of surprise
