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Definition of Verbal Irony
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging outside and someone remarks "what... read full definition
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there's a hurricane raging... read full definition
Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean... read full definition
Verbal Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Let Us Pray:
When the narrator, his wife, and his wife’s friend Robert all sit down for a meal together, the narrator uses verbal irony, as seen in the following passage:
When we sat down to the table for dinner we had another drink. My wife heaped Robert’s plate with cube steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans. […] I swallowed some of my drink. “Now let us pray,” I said, and the blind man lowered his head. My wife looked at me, her mouth agape. “Pray the phone won’t ring and the food doesn’t get cold,” I said.
When the narrator, his wife, and Robert are all settled at the table and the narrator says, “Now let us pray,” and his wife responds by looking at him confusedly “with her mouth agape,” it is a signal that the narrator is doing something out of character. When he follows up this call to prayer by saying, “Pray the phone won’t ring and the food doesn’t get cold,” it becomes clear that he is being sarcastic, or using verbal irony. Readers realize that the narrator was trying to fool Robert into thinking he is a religious person who prays to God before meals, when, in reality, he is a secular man who simply doesn’t want his food to get cold.
This moment is significant because it establishes that the narrator is comfortable mocking religious practices and that he, in general, has a derisive and harsh sense of humor. By the end of the story, after an evening of experiencing the intimate and gentle sort of friendship Robert provides, the narrator’s harshness notably softens.
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