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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
One (1934): Something Rising
Explanation and Analysis—Germany's Economy:
In the following excerpt—an example of dramatic irony—Doerr writes about the conditions in pre-World War II Germany. Something appears to be "rising," in that the country's economic output has increased drastically:
Indeed it does seem to Werner, as the weeks go by, that something new is rising. Mine
production increases; unemployment drops. Meat appears at Sunday supper. Lamb, pork, wieners
—extravagances unheard of a year before. Frau Elena buys a new couch upholstered in orange
corduroy, and a range with burners in black rings; three new Bibles arrive from the consistory in
Berlin; a laundry boiler is delivered to the back door. Werner gets new trousers; Jutta gets her own
pair of shoes. Working telephones ring in the houses of neighbors.
While the narrator describes a prosperous Germany in this passage, dramatic irony stems from the fact that any reader informed about the history of this period knows what horrors to anticipate. This prosperity leads to war and genocide. Werner, however, does not yet know this, nor is he aware of his own role in the conflicts to come. Germany's economic upturn appears to young Werner as a boon, rather than an ill omen of Hitler's future fascist regime, which would employ this efficient industry to execute millions.
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