Isn't it Ironic?

photo credit: flickr 'Hardly' via photopin 

Alanis Morissette could be accused of confusing a generation with the lyrics to her hit song, ‘Ironic’ from the 1995 Jagged Little Pill album.

Is rain on your wedding day really ironic or just bad luck? And what reason could someone possibly have for hording 10,000 spoons and not having any knives? And is not being able to find a knife when you have that many spoons irony? 

What exactly is irony? Why it is so frequently misused? And does it really matter when we all know exactly what Alanis Morissette meant anyway?

According to the Macquarie Dictionary, irony is “a figure of speech or literary device in which the literal meaning is the opposite of that intended.[i]”

Confusion seems to stem from the fact that there are many different types of irony ­– some of which have evolved from the misuse of the term ­– and the relationship between verbal irony and sarcasm. 

The key component to the correct use of verbal irony seems to be in the surface meaning being the opposite of the underlying meaning.  Sarcasm uses words to convey contempt or be funny.  It can use irony but it doesn’t have to have a literal meaning that is the reverse of what was intended.

For more information on irony visit the website : http://www.isitironic.com.

SJ

---

[i] Macquarie Little Dictionary (1999) The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd