Examples Of Dramatic Irony In King Lear

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Dramatic Irony:
Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play
“With my two daughters’ dowers digest the third. Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.”
At this point King Lear is disowning his youngest daughter and giving everything he has to his two eldest. Therefore this is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows that his youngest daughter, Cordelia, is the one that loves him the most, but King Lear doesn’t realize this and therefore banishes her because she refuses to confess her love.

Verbal Irony:
When a character uses a statement with underlying meanings that contrast with its literal meaning
“Sir, I love you more than word can wield the …show more content…
Situational Irony:
When incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens
“If our father carry authority with such disposition as he bears, this last surrender of this will but offend us”
This is an example of situational irony because Goneril and Regan, who have just confessed their love for their father, are now plotting against him because they are worried about their …show more content…
Gloucester answers with. “Sir, this young fellow’s mother could” because Edmund was conceived out of wedlock and Gloucester is playing of the meaning of the word conceive.

Pathetic Fallacy:
The attribution of human feelings or responses to inanimate objects or animals
“But I can tell why a snail has a house ---- Why, to put ‘s head in, not to give it away to his daughters and leave his horns without a case.”
This is an example of pathetic fallacy because the Fool is giving human characteristics to an animal, a snail. In this case the characteristics being given are owning a house, and giving it away to his daughters. This is being done to prove a point to King Lear that the decision he made to give away everything he had to his daughters was
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