Of Irony: Especially in Drama

Of irony as a figure of speech we are commonly aware: it is an everyday conversational weapon. But there are other ironies, those of allegory, of understatement, of detachment, of fate; and especially there is irony in drama. Professor Sedgewick shows how the various meanings of irony have developed – through Socrates, with his urbane pretence ; through Bacon, Schlegel, and Tieck; through Bishop Thirlwall, whose essay on the irony of Sophocles was a landmark in the history of English dramatic criticism; and through R.G. Moulton’s books on drama.

Professor Sedgewick examines closely the notion of irony in drama, and skillfully analyses that delight in contrast of appearance and reality, in the combination of superior knowledge and detached sympathy, which the spectator finds in contemplating the performance of the whole or individual parts of a play. This analysis is accompanied by masterly expositions of impressive scenes from Shakespeare and Ibsen, but especially from the Greek tragedians.

The author concludes with a detailed application of his suggestions to Othello. He believes that a realization of how Shakespeare has saturated the play from the beginning with irony used as a means of dramatic preparation will answer the absurdities of Rymer and show that it is not necessary to suppose a convention called The Calumniator Credited in order to accept the temptation scene.