LITERARY TERMINOLOGY #2

ENG200.001 -- Introduction to Literary Study

Prof. Eileen Joy

Spring 2005

Figure 1. still image from Hamlet (2000)

DRAMATIC IRONY (or, situational irony): a two-part definition>

irony: most simply put, a contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality. This disparity may be manifested in a variety of ways. A discrepancy many exist between what someone says and what he or she actually means, between what someone expects to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what really is true. Irony comes from the Greek eiron, which itselr derives from eironeia, meaning "dissembling" ("lying"). In Greek drama, the eiron was a character who, although weaker than his opponent, the braggart alazon, nevertheless, defeated him by misrepresenting himself in some way. The eiron often acted stupid and foolish in order to fool the truly foolish and stupid (anybody thinking of Hamlet?--look at his exchange with Polonius in Act II, Scene ii). Hamlet, actually, is constantly employing ironic witticisms. For example, in Act I, scene i, when Claudius refers to Hamlet as his cousin and son, Hamlet replies, "A little more than kin, and less than kind."

dramatic irony: the term dramatic irony may be used to refer to a situation in which the characters' own words come back to haunt him or her. However, it usually involves a discrepancy between a character's perception and what the reader or audience know to be true. The reader or audience possesses some material information that the character lacks, and it is the character's imperfect information that motivates or explains his or her discordant response. An example of this in Hamlet is in Act III, Scene iv, when Polonius hides himself behind a tapestry in Gertrude's bedroom when Hamlet storms in to confront his mother. When Hamlet hears Polonius cry out from behind the tapestry, he stabs him with his sword through the tapestry because he believes it is the king, Claudius, who is hiding there. The audience and Gertrude know this as it is happening, but Hamlet does not.

PUN (paronomasia): a play on words that capitalizes on a similarity of spelling and/or pronunciation between words that have different meanings. A pun may also employ a word that has multiple meanings, usually for comic effect. Hamlet is a master of the comedic pun and employs them constantly, often with ironic connotations (see above). In Act I, scene i, when Claudius asks Hamlet, "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?" [meaning: why are you still so gloomy and depressed?], Hamlet replies, "Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun." The joke here, is that "sun" really means "son." And because he really is "too much in the son," his father's death (murder) rightly has him feeling severely depressed.

REVENGE TRAGEDY: a type of popular Elizabethan tragedy, modeled loosely on the plays of the Roman playwright Seneca, in which revenge was featured and bloodshed was common. Revenge tragedies (the most extreme of which are sometimes referred to as tragedies of blood) generally deal with a son's quest to avenge his father's murder or vice versa. A typical revenge tragedy involves the following: (1) the ghost of the murdered man who seeks revenge and implores or orders the protagonist to act; (2) hesitation on the part of the protagonist seeking revenge; (3) other delays that retard the accomplishment of the act of revenge; (4) some dissimulation (such as feigned insanity by the protagonist) to deceive the clever, scheming, and villainous murderer; (5) dramatic scenes of gore and horror, especially during the showdown between the protagonist and the villain; (6) intrigue and lurid incidents such as adultery, suicide, rape, and incest; and (7) philosophical soliloquies. Shakespeare's Hamlet, although fitting somewhat well within the parameters of this genre, can also be seen as a critique of that genre, and even as a deconstruction of it.

deconstruction: deconstruction involves the close reading of texts in order to demonstrate that any given text has irreconcilable contradictory meanings, rather than being a unified, logical whole. Deconstructing a text involves showing that it--like DNA with its double helix--can and does have intertwined yet opposite discourses, multiple and conflicting strands of narrative, threads of meaning that cross and contradict one another.

SOLILOQUY: in a play, a monologue delivered by a character while alone on stage that reveals inner thoughts, emotions, or some other information the audience needs to know. Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech is, perhaps, the most famous soliloquy in English literature.

The definitions above have been partly pilfered from The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2nd edition). Other additions are the work of the fevered mind of Prof. Joy.