Employment Of Irony In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's plays are the treasures in English literary history. As one of the greatest writers in the world, William Shakespeare exploits the technique of irony supremely well in both his tragedies and his comedies; this attracts critics and readers of many generations. The concept of irony can be traced back to the time of Socrates who brings it into the world and names it. In Europe, it attains a high degree of sophistication in the 18th century. In recent years, the more contemporary critics concern themselves with the employment of irony in Shakespeare's play, especially in his comedies. In addition to the influence of the ironic tradition, Shakespeare's inherent gift enables him to employ irony perfectly. This thesis is an attempt to explore the function and value of irony in Shakespeare's dramatic creation especially in his comedies. Twelfth Night is the crowning perfection of the sequence of Shakespeare's comedies; it seems that there is more material of irony than can be accommodated in a single play. In Twelfth Night Shakespeare intends to cram all vareities of the irony which he has ever used in his previous plays.Shakespeare skillfully puts the theory of irony into practice in Twelfth Night, which is much helpful for the characterization, structure and comic effect of the play. In general, irony including verbal irony, dramatic irony and situational irony, illustrates the theme of the play, mould the character and structure and intensify the comic effect in Twelfth Night. The thesis will take Twelfth Night as a subject to exhibit the employment of irony in Shakespeare's comedies.The thesis consists of three parts:Part One elaborates the employment and function of verbal irony in Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night is packed with the verbal irony with which Shakespeare concentrates on the characterization of Orsino and Viola. With the verbal irony, the playwright conveys the ironic meaning through a particular word or phrase, or the tone of the voice. The broad definition of the verbal irony is adopted in analyzing the characters. Being disguised with the man-attire, Viola is hesitant to express her genuine idea in direct way. Hence the ironic effect occurs under such circumstance. The same is true for the duke Orsino.Part two discusses the dramatic irony employed in Twelfth Night. Dramatic irony plays an important role in portraying the character's ridiculousness, absurdity and weakness, creating the comic atmosphere during the performance. The discrepancy between the audience's consciousness and the characters'unconsciousness serves to be the spring of the laughter, which the dramatic irony intends to create in the comedy. In this variety, the characters reveal themselves, unaware of the truth that the audience have discerned. In Twelfth Night Shakespeare employs three devices to create the discrepancy: cross-dressing or disguise, twinship and trick. Each of them is put into full practice in the play to create the conflict or identity misunderstanding and add the comic effect to the play. Shakespeare abundantly uses the self-betrayal irony to reveal the ridiculousness and weakness of the steward Malvolio who is tricked by the revelers.Part three is devoted to the study of situational irony in Twelfth Night. Situational irony conduces much to the characterization and the structure of the play. To some extent the situational irony is closely related to the plot. It can be sub-divided into the irony of events and the irony of incongruity. The irony of events in Twelfth Night concentrates on exposing the series of frustrations from which Malvolio suffers a lot and it constructs the sub-plot of the play. With the irony of incongruity, the discrepancy between the protagonists Viola and Olivia is enlarged and their opposite natures are highlighted in front of the audience.