English 11 / Unit 4: Realism and Naturalism
4.6 Irony, Point of View and Tone in Realist Fiction
Notes
Understanding how a story is told is as important as what happens.
- Verbal irony: saying the opposite of what is meant. Situational irony: the outcome is opposite to expectation. Dramatic irony: the reader knows something the character does not.
- First-person narrators use "I" and share limited knowledge. Third-person limited follows one character's thoughts. Omniscient narrators know everyone's thoughts.
- Tone is the author's attitude (for example, sympathetic, mocking, detached).
- Worked example: a detached tone in a story about a drowning man makes the event feel colder and emphasizes nature's indifference.
Practice
A reader knows a character is walking into a trap, but the character does not. This is:
Dramatic irony depends on the reader knowing more than the character.
A story told with the pronoun "I" by a character who is part of the action is written in:
"I" signals first person.
A narrator describes a deadly shipwreck in an even, unemotional voice. The tone is best described as:
The calm, objective voice creates distance.
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