DRAMATIC IRONY

This is most common in plays but can occur in novels: it happens when we, as audience, have knowledge which one (or more) of the characters does not possess and this gives some of their words a twist as we are aware they are in error in a significant way. Another character may also share this information.
Much of Shakespeare's, Othello, depends on tragic dramatic irony as we see that Iago is a villainous liar and that Desdemona is innocent of adultery. When Othello says: "I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips", he means that he was then ignorant of her infidelity but we and Iago know that she never kissed Cassio and that the traces of them were simply not there.
The mode can be used for comic purposes also in classic and popular works.

VERBAL IRONY

In verbal irony the words as printed or spoken do not carry the meaning they have on the surface: the underlying significance may be the exact opposite as in the cruder form called sarcasm. There is usually a trigger word or phrase which alerts the reader or listener to the presence of irony and the duality of intention.
The opening sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a famous example:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
What the author means is that it is hoped, by wishful thinking, in this small community, that a rich bachelor will marry one of the spinsters available.
The trigger word is "universally" as no truth is accepted by everyone and so it must refer to a few people in this particular setting. Doubt is therefore cast on their deluded, optimistic and self-centred expectations. We assume comedy will follow.

IRONY OF SITUATION

This form of irony can occur in life as well as literature: a person or character performs an action with a definite intention but the outcome turns out to have an opposite and significant effect. It produces a sense of "ouch" in the observer, such as when someone superstitious steps into the road to avoid the bad luck following walking under a ladder and is then knocked down. There is often a feeling that the result is fated although it can be comic or tragic. In Jane Austen's Emma, Emma persuades her friend Harriet Smith to look in a higher social rank to find a marriage partner and Harriet, because of this, chooses Mr Knightley, thus making Emma realise that she herself loves him.

IRONY

Irony is a wide term which refers to a tone created by discrepancy and may be simplified into three basic modes:
1) an intention has an unexpected outcome; 2)  words do not mean what they say; 3) a character in a play says something which we know to be misguided or wrong. It always involves a twist which we feel to be significant and may be either comic or tragic
These are known as: 1) irony of situation; 2) verbal irony;
3) dramatic irony. All can produce a sense of satisfaction in the reader or member of the audience who feels sufficiently intelligent to have perceived its use.
I intend to deal with each separately over the next couple of weeks.

SPELLING TIPS

No English word ends in j
No English word ends in v except spiv
No English word ends in i except taxi (and ski and some other foreign imports* such as spaghetti)
Never write vv
Never write uv - write ov even if sound is uv
q never stands alone - write qu
w makes or say er: worm

*There is some controversy about some words finishing in i and whether they are now considered English or foreign but the rule holds: i is not a natural English ending - think hard and check before you write it at the end of a word..