Irony

Irony is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says and what is generally understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history). Irony may also arise from a discordance between acts and results, especially if it is striking, and seen by an outside audience. Irony is understood as an aesthetic evaluation by an audience, which relies on a sharp discordance between the real and the ideal, and which is variously applied to texts, speech, events, acts, and even fashion. All the different senses of irony revolve around the perceived notion of an incongruity, or a gap, between an understanding of reality, or expectation of a reality, and what actually happens.

H. W. Fowler, in Modern English Usage, says of irony:

Irony threatens authoritative models of discourse by "removing the semantic security of ‘one signifier : one signified’"; irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker’s perception of paradox which arises from insoluble problems.

The connection between irony and humor is somewhat revealed when the surprise at what should have expected startles us into laughter. However, not all irony is humorous: “grim irony” and “stark irony” are familiar.