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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Excluding the Worst:
Because the narrator moves between the perspectives of a range of characters, the novel contains many instances of dramatic irony. Moreover, because the narrator is narrating with the benefit of hindsight, the first part also contains a large amount of foreshadowing. The characters' discordant views of situations makes the reader expect conflict.
In the ninth chapter, Jackson tells Cecilia that Briony is gone. At first, Cecilia's concern for Briony snowballs into concern for everyone else in the house. She dissipates this concern by reminding herself that the outcomes one imagines in moments of anxiety are never what actually ends up happening:
This time she paused to peer out of the window at the dusk and wonder where her sister was. Drowned in the lake, ravished by gypsies, struck by a passing motorcar, she thought ritually, a sound principle being that nothing was ever as one imagined it, and this was an efficient means of excluding the worst.
As an older sibling who has often had to act as a parent, Cecilia knows that no matter how much one plans and worries, things never turn out quite as one expects. Thinking the worst is a strategic ritual through which Cecilia ensures that the worst won't happen, and the fact that the narrative calls attention to this mindset foreshadows that things will go awry later in the novel.
On the one hand, the passage emphasizes Cecilia's clever, thoughtful wisdom. On the other hand, it strengthens the underlying dramatic irony, because the reader knows why Briony is gone. She hasn't drowned, been kidnapped, or been hit by a car. Instead, she has been given—and very likely has read—a letter that directly concerns Cecilia. This doesn't immediately seem as bad as any of the worst-case scenarios Cecilia comes up with, but the reader still knows that it will introduce a great amount of tension into the narrative.
Related Themes:
Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—Coming Between:
Early in the third part, the reader learns that Briony has submitted a short story to a literary magazine called Horizon. Although three months have passed since she delivered it to them, she has yet to hear back. When a response finally comes, the rejection letter is full of dramatic irony. Briony feels taunted by the letter—especially its ironic intuition for how things turned out.
Because "Two Figures by a Fountain" is inspired by events in Briony's life—the outcome of which the reader is well acquainted with—Horizon's rejection feels ironic. When the magazine's editors pose questions about character motivations or the sequence of events in the story, both Briony and the reader are well aware of the answers:
If this girl has so fully misunderstood or been so wholly baffled by the strange little scene that has unfolded before her, how might it affect the lives of the two adults? Might she come between them in some disastrous fashion? Or bring them closer, either by design or accident? Might she innocently expose them somehow, to the young woman’s parents perhaps? They surely would not approve of a liaison between their eldest daughter and their charlady’s son. Might the young couple come to use her as a messenger?
Each of the questions formulated in this part of the letter adds to the mounting dramatic irony, since the reader knows all of the answers to the questions. The girl's misunderstanding affects the lives of the two adults to a life-altering extent. She certainly comes between them in a disastrous fashion, but also accidentally brings them close. And she winds up exposing them to her parents, at least one of whom would not approve of a liaison between them. All of this happens because the couple uses her as their messenger.
Briony feels mocked by the questions, finding that her guilt increases with the magazine's methodical dismantling of her story's inner workings. Since the beginning of the novel, Briony has always been plagued by the sense that the adults around her know much more than she does. The letter only accentuates this feeling, as the editors recognize the risks and consequences of her actions in a way she was unable to in the moment. They can tell that the young girl in the story is "at the dawn of her selfhood," but also that she has a "fundamental lack of grasp of the situation."
As Briony reflects on the letter, she feels that the dramatic irony within it delivers an indictment against her. After she receives the letter, Robbie is no longer the only character to have been accused of a crime.
She thought of her letter, her sugarcoated rejection slip. [...] She had come to see that, without intending to, it delivered a significant personal indictment. Might she come between them in some disastrous fashion? Yes, indeed. And having done so, might she obscure the fact by concocting a slight, barely clever fiction and satisfy her vanity by sending it off to a magazine?
Not only does the letter lay reveal Briony's limited perspective within the story and its composition, it also opens her eyes to the folly of sending the story to a literary magazine. She recognizes that this was mostly a way for her to avoid dealing with her guilt.
Related Themes:
