Shakespeare: The Master of Dramatic Irony

The Master of Dramatic Irony

Irony is a very important element of literature. Proper use of irony allows for an audience to know things that the characters in work of literature to know things that the characters in the literature do not know. When used properly, this knowledge is used to create feelings of humor and suspense for an audience. The power of irony makes it a very common literary element, and many famous authors and playwrights have used it to dramatize their works. For example, in Oedipus Rex, Sophocles has Oedipus search for the killer of the king, only to find out that it was himself who did the killing. The audience of course had known the entire time—which of course made for many humorous situations. Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most renowned ironic playwrights of all time.

One of the best examples of dramatic irony is in his play The Twelfth Night, Shakespeare uses irony extensively. The use of irony in this play is the source of a majority of the humor found within the play. More specifically dramatic irony is incredibly important in this play. Dramatic irony is created when the audience knows something that the characters don’t, and this play is filled with it. The dramatic irony is used to create a very engaging and funny experience for the audience. Without the extensive use of dramatic irony, The Twelfth Night would not have been nearly as funny and therefore there are many examples of irony found within the play.

The first and most important example of irony in The Twelfth Night is the most obvious: the dramatic irony that is created when Viola and Sebastian believe each other to be dead, when the audience of course knows that they’re both alive. This situation becomes even funnier, when Viola decides to take on the likeness of her twin brother—calling herself Cesario. This will prove to get the characters into many sticky situations in which they don’t understand what’s happening. One of the best examples of this is the first time that Sebastian meets Olivia. Olivia has fallen in love with Viola (who was pretending to be Sebastian). So in Olivia’s mind, Sebastian is the man he’s fallen in love with, when the audience knows that they’ve never actually met. This causes their first meeting to be not only very suspenseful, but also hilarious.  The dramatic irony doesn’t stop with just that one love triangle, however. Orsino, who is Viola’s boss, loves Olivia. So, Orsino sends Viola to attempt to earn Olivia’s favor for Orsino. He was less than pleased when he first saw Sebastian with Olivia. It’s the perfect example of dramatic irony, and modern writers should take note: Viola is passionate for a man who has no idea she is actually a woman. That very same man is in love with a woman who is in love with a man who is actually a woman!

Even the minor characters have their own bits of dramatic irony mixed into their side story to make it just that much more interesting. Poor Malvolio has the meanest of pranks played on him, and the prank is made even funnier due the presence of dramatic irony. The dramatic irony is created when Malvolio receives a note written in handwriting that looks like Olivia’s. The audience knows that the note was instead written by Olivia’s servant, but Malvolio believes it to be written by Olivia herself. The note gives Malvolio specific instructions to earn Olivia’s love, and is full of things that are out of character for Malvolio. He wears ridiculous clothes and acts like someone that he isn’t in the hopes that Olivia will fall in love with him. His actions instead have the opposite effect: she is bothered by his actions and has him treated like he’s insane instead. The entire time the audience knows what’s up, and every one of Malvolio’s miss steps is funnier than the last.

The use of all of this dramatic irony helps to create one of the major central themes of the play: the foolishness of mortals.  Dramatic irony is pivotal in the creation of this theme, because it allows an audience to experience what it’s like to be omnipotent. It forces people to realize what it’s like to be all-knowing, and through that, they can realize that outside of the theatre, they are not all knowing, and that they only know a small portion of every story that plays out in their lives. This theme is backed by happenings in the play. Every character makes decisions and judgments without all of the knowledge necessary to make said judgment. Malvolio is one example. Had he took the time to figure out who had written that letter, he would have acted a lot differently. Another example is when Olivia’s friends and family first meet Sebastian. They assume that he’s Cesario, even when he asserts that he is not. When combined with the dramatic irony that’s present, the audience is really able to realize exactly how foolish people can be.

Another central theme that is reinforced by the presence of dramatic irony is that ocular proof is not always enough. Shakespeare tests the old saying that you can believe what you see, by finding a situation in which what you see is false. The Viola / Sebastian situation is the perfect example of this. The characters in the play frequently trust their eyes, and are frequently proven to be foolish because of this. This repeated ‘what you see isn’t what you get’ asserts that what you see isn’t always the truth. The characters see Cesario, therefore Cesario is who it is, even though who they’re actually seeing is Sebastian himself. The dramatic irony allows the audience to recognize this fact, and presses the issue even harder. The audience can understand that just because something appears to be true, it may not be true.

The irony allows for yet another central theme to be possible. Shakespeare questions gender with his play as well. Because of Viola’s adventures as a man, many awkward situations are made. Olivia falls in love with a woman. Would she have been able to fall in love with the woman if she knew it was a woman she loved? Orsino falls in love with a woman who he thought was a man when he met him. These acts raise an important question: how important is gender? If a woman can love a woman just because she thinks he’s a man, what’s to stop her from loving a woman? This questions is enhanced near the end of the play. Orsino continues to call Viola by her boy name. Even in his very last line of the play, Orsino refers to Viola as Cesario. This raises the question of what Orsino finds so attractive about Viola. He may be attracted to her masculinity. Shakespeare never answers this question however, and leaves it up to the audience to decide.

The dramatic irony also helps to identify some of the many motifs present in the play. One of the most important motifs in the play is that of mistaken identity. Repeatedly Viola and Sebastian are mistaken for one another. The repeated cases of mistaken identity help to advance the storyline in a funny and suspenseful way, as the web that’s being woven continues to become more entangled and complicated. The further the story gets, the more the audience can’t wait for the finale: the time in which the twins will be reunited and everything will become resolved and the desire to see that moment of confusion for the characters builds a ton of suspense. Mistaken identity is closely linked to another major motif in the play: disguises. Many of the major characters in the play assume disguises during the play. Viola uses a disguise to convince everyone that she’s a man. Malvolio uses a disguise to try to earn Olivia’s love. Feste disguises himself as a priest to fool Malvolio. The fact that Feste uses a disguise even though Malvolio won’t be able to see him asserts how important clothing is—implying that in order to be a priest, Feste must first look like a priest. Not to mention, in order to become a man Viola only had to change her clothing.

It’s clearly evident that Shakespeare intended for dramatic irony to play a major part in The Twelfth Night. Without the presence of dramatic irony, the plot of this theme would have been many times less funny and suspenseful, and three of the major central themes would have been much harder to detect. The Twelfth Night uses so much dramatic irony, and Shakespeare proves himself to be the unrivaled master of dramatic irony in this play. Dramatic irony isn’t only found in this one of Shakespeare’s works though; there are many other examples of dramatic irony found in many of Shakespeare’s plays. Dramatic irony is very central in most of Shakespeare’s works.

In Romeo and Juliette dramatic irony plays a major part in making the play more tragic. The most obvious example is of course near the end. Juliette takes the poison to make herself appear dead. When Romeo finds her, he believes that she is dead even though the audience knows that she’s alive. The tragedy is that Romeo, convinced that he can’t live without her, decides to kill himself. Juliette then awakes to find her Romeo dead next to her, and realizing that what he had done, decides to kill herself as well. This scene is perhaps one of the most famous examples of dramatic irony throughout history, but this play does contain more dramatic irony than just that little bit. For example, Juliette’s father promises Juliette to marry Paris when the audience knows that Romeo has already married Juliette making the union of Juliette and Paris impossible. Another example is how throughout the entire play, both families swear up and down that they can never forgive, but the audience knows that they will because of the prologue. There’s also the simple aspect: the audience knows that both Romeo and Juliette will die (also because of the prologue) but none of the characters are privy to the information.

In Othello dramatic irony also plays a very important roll. First and foremost, the audience knows that Iago is the puppet master for the rest of the play when Othello believes him to be a good friend and advisor. The audience also knows that Othello was never cheated on, and they know that Othello trusts someone who isn’t trustworthy. More dramatic irony is also created when the characters step aside to think aloud: this act allows the audience to see into the minds of the characters, allowing them access to knowledge that none of the other characters have. The use of dramatic irony in Othello keeps the story compelling and the audience engaged.

Dramatic irony is a very important story-telling tool, and Shakespeare uses it to its fullest in many of his plays, most notably The Twelfth Night, but also in many of his other works, including Othello and Romeo and Juliette. He masterfully uses dramatic irony in his works to create emotion in his audience, which has a drastic affect on how his plays are taken as well as the messages that they send. His works are time tested examples of how to use dramatic irony to create humor, tragedy, and suspense, and how to keep an audience interested through an entire performance. Shakespeare is truly the master of dramatic irony.