Isn't it Ironic ... Or is It?

Alanis Morissette had it all wrong. The Grammy-Award winner may have known what she was doing when she wrote a song about irony using a majority of examples that were not, in fact, ironic ("rain on a wedding day" = good/bad luck; "black fly in your chardonnay"= definitely bad luck), but many students cannot tell the difference. They run into someone in the hall who they haven't seen in awhile and they call it irony. Or, they receive detention for hitting another student and call it ironic. It's not.

Why does irony matter in life? Well, most students will probably not be confronted by a potential employer who asks them to define irony as part of their interview, like the desperately-job-seeking Winona Ryder was in the film "Reality Bites." They will, however, read literature, attend films, and experience situations that can only be defined by this elusive term ... and without a firm grip on its meaning, the truth of that medium will be lost to them.

As a high school English teacher, irony is part of my day. My students encounter it in their textbooks, on their standardized tests, and in the lives they live between classes, though they may not realize it. I usually begin explaining the concept by referring to Morissette. Only one instance in her "Ironic" lyrics fit the bill: "Mr. Play-It-Safe was afraid to fly. He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye. He waited his whole ... life to take that flight and as the plane crashed down, he thought, 'Well isn't this nice?'" "The free ride when you've already paid?" Nope. "The traffic jam when you're already late?" Negative.

So, what is ironic, then? According to Writers Inc, a textbook I use in my classrooms, it is a concept that can be understood in three parts:

1. Dramatic irony -- The reader sees a character's mistakes or misunderstandings, but the character himself does not. Horror movies, for example, scream dramatic irony. The viewer knows the masked-murderer is in the closet with the knife, but the unsuspecting blonde cheerleader does not. Another uber-famous example occurs at the end of Romeo and Juliet, when the reader knows Juliet is alive, but Romeo thinks she's dead and kills himself.

2. Verbal irony -- The writer says one thing, but really means it's exact opposite. My classroom is constantly cold. Remarking on it's warm coziness would be ironic.

3. Situational Irony -- When what results from a situation is different from what the reader expects. The unfortunate man in Morrissette's song fits this category.

History and higher learning can complicate this discussion with talk of Socratic irony and Roman irony, but these three basic definitions can help a high school student -- and most adults beyond high school -- call irony for what it is. When students latch on to the true definition of irony, they find it everywhere ... correctly. A bumper sticker that reads, "Honk if you want peace and quiet;" a news story about a poor seal that is saved by a nature conservancy and, upon release, is devoured by a killer whale; these are all example of real-world ironies. Coincidences? I think not.