English Literature IGCSE
Dramatic Irony
What Dramatic Irony means in English Literature IGCSE, as defined for Cambridge International, Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of Dramatic Irony
Exam boards and our study guides word this term in slightly different ways. Learn the version your board uses.
When the audience knows something the characters do not.
When the reader understands the significance of an event or statement better than the narrator or characters do.
When the audience knows something that the characters do not, or knows the inevitable outcome of their actions.
When the audience (or retrospective narrator) knows something that the characters at the time do not.
When the audience understands the significance of an event or speech that the characters do not.
When the reader understands something that the characters (or narrator) do not.
Topics that use Dramatic Irony
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cambridge International IGCSE)
- Blues for an Alabama Sky (Cambridge International IGCSE)
- The War of the Worlds (Cambridge International IGCSE)
- A View from the Bridge (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- An Inspector Calls (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- Death and the King's Horseman (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- Kindertransport (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- Klara and the Sun (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- Macbeth (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- The Merchant of Venice (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
- Western Lane (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE)
Related terms
Using Dramatic Irony in the exam
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