Irony Essay

How to Begin

The Prompt

Essay prompt: How does irony create

excitement in literature?

All essays begin with some kind of question

or prompt from the teacher. The goal is
to answer the prompt in the essay.
What needs to be proven in this essay?

The Thesis Statement

Essay prompt: How does irony create

excitement in literature?

Q: How do you create a thesis statement

out of an essay prompt?
A: One strategy is to turn the essay prompt
into your thesis by twisting the question
into a statement.

Sample Thesis Stmts.

The literary device irony can cause excitement in

the reader of literature.
Authors use irony to add to the excitement of a
story in literature.
Authors of literature add excitement to a
readers experience using irony.
When reading literature, the excitement level is
enhanced through an authors use of irony.
Through the use of irony, an author of literature
can create excitement in the reader.

A Good Thesis
No matter your topic sentence, you should aim to include
these items:

The word irony

The word excitement
The phrase literary device
The idea that the author is using irony to accomplish
something
The idea that the reader is the one experiencing
excitement

Compose TWO possible thesis statements now

Excitement? Come on

In this essay, excitement doesnt necessarily

mean that youre happy and jumping out of your
seat. Excitement can also mean a heightened
emotion, regardless of what the emotion is. So
when youre surprised that Rainsford jumps out
from behind the curtain, and you know hes
going to face off with Zaroff, the tension and
excitement level rise. In other words, the
situational irony causes your reading experience
to become more intensified due to your
emotional response to the story. That emotional
intensification is excitement.

Selecting Stories to Use

In the homework, you wrote about
four cases of irony. Now you must
choose the two cases you
understand best to include in your
essay.
Read over your four explanations
and select the two you think you
understand best.

Topic Sentences

Topic sentences control the content

of the paragraphs. This essay will
contain two body paragraphs with
the general content of:
Story 1 with irony, and how the irony
works to enhance excitement
Story 2 with irony, and how the story
works to enhance excitement

Topic Sentences, contd.

In an essay, topic sentences not only

control the content of paragraphs,
they also must support the overall
thesis statement. This is illustrated
with examples on the next slide.

Thesis/Topic Sentence
Relationship

Thesis: Through the use of irony, an author of

literature can create excitement in the reader.

Now the proof must be given from actual stories to

show that excitement can be enhanced.
Topic sentences:

Guy de Maupassant, in his story The Necklace, uses

situational irony to enhance the intensity of emotion
experienced by the reader.
In the story The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson,
the author employs dramatic irony to heighten the
tension level in the reader.

Topic Sentences, contd.

Topic sentences in this essay will

contain these elements:
Author name
Story title
The claim that the use of irony in the
story heightens the readers excitement
or intensifies the readers emotions

Write Two Topic Sentences

Further examples:

Using Your Homework

Each body paragraph will have this

general outline:
Topic sentence
RDF in the form of summary from the
story (#3 on your homework)
E in the form of explanation (#4 on
your homework)

Adding the RDF

Choose one of the topic sentences you wrote and

find the questions that correspond to it on your
irony homework.
Transfer your summary (question #3) from the
homework to the position underneath your topic
sentence.

Because your original summary of the part of the

story where irony appears is between 2 and 3
sentences long, your paragraph will already have
four sentences when you add the summary to
your topic sentence!

Example TS > RDF

TS: Guy de Maupassant, in his story The Necklace, uses

situational irony to enhance the intensity of emotion
experienced by the reader.
RDF: Near the end of the story, Mme. Loisel comes across
Mme. Forestier in a park. Because the Loisels are now
poor due to years repaying the debts associated with
replacing Mme Forestiers necklace, Mme. Loisel decides to
reveal the truth: the necklace returned to Mme. Forestier
was not the original. When Mme. Loisel reveals that she
and her husband are now poor because of their efforts to
replace the lost original, Mme. Forestier reveals that the
original, in fact, was not made of genuine stones.

Adding the E Explanation

Question #4 on your homework
explains the irony in the story. It is
therefore an E
At this point, you can transfer your
answer to question #4 to the
position just under where you
finished the RDF.

Sample E Explanation

The situational irony occurs in the difference

between what the reader expects and what is
revealed in the final scene. No indication is ever
given that the original necklace is a fake, so the
reader believes what the Loisels believe: it is
genuine. The reader sees the Loisels sacrifice their
lives to repay the debts of the replacement
necklace, so when the necklace is finally paid off, we
believe the relief was worth all the effort. However,
when Mme. Forestier reveals that the original was a
fake, we realize that all of the work we thought was
valuable is in fact worthless. The truth is that the
Loisels worked to pay off a fake.

The Final Key Ingredient

You explained the irony, but you
have to make it clear how this irony
affects the readers emotions.
The key: You must state clearly
whether the irony caused an
unexpected surprise or created
increased tension.

Sample Key Ingredient

The surprise from Mme. Forestier at the end

causes the reader to feel sudden shock. The
readers relief that they are not in the Loisels
shoes is an intensified emotional response to the
story. The surprise caused by the irony brings
about that increased excitement.

Final Tally of Sentences

Topic sentence: 1
RDF (summary): at least 2
E (explanation): at least 3
Final Key: at least 1

Minimum total per paragraph: 7