Paradox

A paradox is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. It may

be either a situation or a statement.

Paradoxical situation: A situation containing apparently but not actually

incompatible elements.

Example: Christ was born of a virgin and is both God and man.

Paradoxical statement (or Verbal paradox): A figure of speech in which

an apparently self-contradictory statement is nevertheless found to be true. In a
paradoxical statement the contradiction usually stems from one of the words being
used figuratively or with more than one denotation.

Example: When Alexander Pope wrote that a literary critic of his time would
“damn with faint praise,” he was using a verbal paradox, for how can a man damn
by praising? Pope’s paradox is not strange when we realize that damn is being used
figuratively, and that Pope means only that a too reserved praise may damage an
author with the public almost as much as adverse criticism.

Example: The expression “less is more” is a paradox because it contains two

words that directly contradict each other: “less” and “more.” However, the
statement itself conveys a complex belief that is generally accepted as true—
sometimes, having a smaller quantity of something can be more effective,
productive, or freeing than having a large amount of it.

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When we understand all the conditions and circumstances involved in a paradox,
we find that what at first seemed impossible is actually entirely plausible and not
strange at all.

The value of paradox is its shock value.

Overstatement

Overstatement, or hyperbole, is simply exaggeration, but exaggeration in the

service of truth.

If you say, “I’m starved!” or “You could have knocked me over with a feather!” or
“I’ll die if I don’t pass this course!” you do not expect to be taken literally; you are
merely adding emphasis to what you really mean. (And if you say, “There were
literally millions of people at the beach!” you are merely piling one overstatement
on top of another, for you really mean, “There were figuratively millions of people
at the beach,” or, literally, “The beach was very crowded.”) Like all figures of
speech, overstatement may be used with a variety of effects. It may be humorous
or grave, fanciful or restrained, convincing or unconvincing.

Understatement

Understatement, or saying less than one means, may exist in what one says or
merely in how one says it.

If, for instance, upon sitting down to a loaded dinner plate, you say, “This looks
like a nice snack,” you are actually stating less than the truth.

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Irony

Irony is a term which has a range of meanings that all involve some sort of
discrepancy or incongruity. Irony should not be equated with mere sarcasm, which
is simply language one person uses to belittle or ridicule another. Irony is far more
complex, a technique used to convey a truth about human experience by exposing
some incongruity of a character’s behavior or a society’s traditions. , irony helps
critique the world in which we live by laughing at the many varieties of human
eccentricity and folly.

1. Verbal irony, usually the simplest kind, is a figure of speech in which the
speaker says the opposite of what he or she intends to say. (This form of irony is,
in fact, often employed to create sarcasm.)

Like all figures of speech, verbal irony runs the danger of being misunderstood.
With irony, the risks are perhaps greater than with other figures, for if metaphor is
misunderstood, the result may be simply bewilderment; but if irony is
misunderstood, the reader goes away with an idea exactly the opposite of what the
user meant to convey. The results of misunderstanding if, for instance, you
ironically called someone a numbskull might be calamitous. For this reason the
user of irony must be very skillful in its use, conveying by an altered tone, or by a
wink of the eye or pen, that irony is intended; and the reader of literature must be
always alert to recognize the subtle signs of irony

Example: You are soooooo beautiful!!!!

Example: A student gets zero and he says: It’s Perfect!

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2. In dramatic irony the discrepancy is not between what the speaker says and
what the speaker means but between what the speaker says and what the poem
means. The speaker’s words may be perfectly straightforward, but the author, by
putting these words in a particular speaker’s mouth, may be indicating to the reader
ideas or attitudes quite opposed to those the speaker is voicing.

Example: Two characters kill their former classmate – then hide his body in a
wooden chest and host a dinner party. We know the body is in the chest but the
partygoers do not.

3. In irony of situation, usually the most important kind for the fiction writer, the
discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or between expectation and
fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.

Example: Harry Potter

Throughout the majority of the books, Harry believes he must kill Lord Voldemort
to save the Wizarding World. However, Harry learns that he must actually allow
Voldemort to kill him in order to save everyone he loves. As the hero of the story,
it is the last thing the characters and audiences expected to happen.

Example: A pilot has fear of height.

One reason that irony is such an important technique is that a story, like other art
forms, achieves its effects through indirection. “Tell all the truth,” Emily
Dickinson advised, “but tell it slant”

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Sarcasm, Satire or Irony?

Sarcasm and satire both imply ridicule, one on the colloquial level, the other on the
literary level. Sarcasm is simply bitter or cutting speech, intended to wound the
feelings (it comes from a Greek word meaning to tear flesh). Satire is a more
formal term, usually applied to written literature rather than to speech and
ordinarily implying a higher motive: it is ridicule (either bitter or gentle) of human
folly or vice, with the purpose of bringing about reform or at least of keeping other
people from falling into similar folly or vice. Irony, on the other hand, is a literary
device or figure that may be used in the service of sarcasm or ridicule or may not.
It is popularly confused with sarcasm and satire because it is so often used as their
tool; but irony may be used without either sarcastic or satirical intent, and sarcasm
and satire may exist (though they do not usually) without irony. If, for instance,
one of the members of your class raises his hand on the discussion of this point and
says, “I don’t understand,” and your instructor replies, with a tone of heavy disgust
in his voice, “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to,” he is being sarcastic but not ironic;
he means exactly what he says. But if, after you have done particularly well on an
examination, your instructor brings your test papers into the classroom saying,
“Here’s some bad news for you: you all got A’s and B’s!” he is being ironic but
not sarcastic. Sarcasm, we may say, is cruel, as a bully is cruel: it intends to give
hurt. Satire is both cruel and kind, as a surgeon is cruel and kind: it gives hurt in
the interest of the patient or of society. Irony is neither cruel nor kind: it is simply a
device, like a surgeon’s scalpel, for performing any operation more skillfully.