Irony and Symbol

Two additional facets of fictional works are irony and symbol. While not as pervasive as elements such as plot and character, irony and symbol are tremendously important. Both allow writers to compress a great deal of meaning into a brief space. Both require our deliberation of we are to appreciate and enjoy their full range of significance. And both require us to be alert to their existence if we are to understand the works in which they occur. If we do not perceive a writer’s ironic intentions, we may not just misconstrue a particular story; we may interpret it as suggesting the opposite of what is actually is intended to mean. And if we overlook a story’s symbols, we may underestimate its achievement and oversimplify its significance.

Irony

Irony is not so much an element of fiction as a pervasive quality in it. it may appear in fiction (and in other literary genres as well) in three ways: in a work’s language, in its incidents, or in its point of view. But in whatever forms it emerges, irony always involves a contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another. The contrast may be between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen.

In verbal irony, for example, we say the opposite of what we mean. When someone says, “That was a brilliant remark,” and we know that it wasn’t anything brilliant, we understand the speaker’s ironic intention. In such relatively simple instances there is usually no problem in perceiving irony. In more complex instances, however, the designation of an action or a remark as ironic can be much more complicated.

Besides verbal irony – in which we understand the opposite of what a speaker says – fiction makes use of irony of circumstance (sometimes called irony of situation). Writers sometimes create discrepancies between what seems to be and what is.

Irony of circumstance or situation also refers to occasions when an individual expects one thing to occur only to discover that the opposite happens.

Although verbal irony and irony of circumstance or situation are the prevalent forms irony assumes in fiction, two others deserve mention: dramatic irony and ironic vision. More typical of plays than stories, dramatic irony is the discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know. Writers sometimes direct our responses by letting us see things that their characters do not.

Some writers exploit the discrepancy between what the readers and characters know establish an ironic vision in a work. An ironic vision is established in a work as an overall tone that suggests how a writer views his or her characters and subject.

Symbol

Symbols in fiction are simply objects, actions, or events that convey meaning. The meaning they convey extends beyond their literal significance, beyond their literal significance, beyond their more obvious actual reason for being included in the story.

How do we know if a particular detail is symbolic? How do we decide whether we should look beyond the literal meaning of a dialogue or the literal value of an object or action? The simplest answer to this question is that there is no way to be certain about the symbolic value of particular details. But we can alert ourselves to the possible symbolic overtones of such details through the following questions:

1. How important to the story is the object, action, gesture, or dialogue that we suspect is symbolic? Does it appear more than once? Does it occur at a climactic moment? Is it described in detail?

2. Does the story seem to warrant our granting its details more significance than their immediate literal value? Why?

3. Does a symbolic interpretation make sense? Does it fit in with a literal or commonsense explanation? Or does our symbolic reading contradict or otherwise distort the literal surface of the story?

4. What objections might be raised against our symbolic interpretation?

Even if we consider such questions carefully, we may still not be sure that a particular detail is symbolic. Sometimes we will be confident that such a detail is symbolic without being able to say just what it represents. This kind of uncertainty is natural, largely because symbols by their very nature resist easy and definitive explanation.

“What is irony?” WiseGeek.
“Symbol.” Wikipedia.