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Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Dramatic Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Brother’s Tears:
When Brother and Doodle show off Doodle’s newfound ability to walk in front of their family—something Brother had been training Doodle to do for months—Brother cries. In an example of dramatic irony, readers are aware that Brother is crying from guilt, while Brother’s family is not. The dramatic irony of this moment comes across in the following passage:
Doodle told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry.
“What are you crying for?” asked Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices; and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.
Brother demonstrates his awareness of the dramatic irony in this moment, noting how his father, who has just earnestly asked, “What are you crying for?” has no idea that he is crying not out of joy for his brother—or pride in their shared effort—but because he “was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” When Brother notes that he is a “slave” to “pride,” what he means is that he cares so much about his reputation that he forced his brother to learn to walk not to make Doodle's life better, but to save himself from embarrassment.
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