Irony is an important literary device in many stories and there are many

examples of it in The Stone Boy by Gina Berriault, Animal Farm by George

Orwell, and The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In

all of these works, irony plays an important role in the plot of the story.

In The Stone Boy , the title of the story is a good example of irony.

The title indicates to the reader that Arnold has no feelings and is like a stone.

The irony here is that Arnold cares more about Eugie than anybody, he just

doesn t know how to express it. Although Arnold did not start out as a

stone boy , by the end of the story the other characters actions forced

Arnold to build a wall around himself so his feelings couldn t be hurt

anymore.

George Orwell also used irony in the plot of Animal Farm. In the

beginning of the story, Old Major talks about rebelling from Mr. Jones

administration . Mr. Jones way of running things was in a sense a form of

capitalism. The animals had an idea about a socialist form of government.

This existed for a short period of time when the animals had all the power.

When Napoleon took charge, he gradually gained power and after a while the

farm was soon under the rule of a capitalist. This change in government

ultimately led to the downfall of the farm. This a good example of irony,

because capitalism was the thing the animals were trying to get away from,

and in the end it led to their downfall. At another point in the story, when

Boxer is being taken to the hospital , he is really being taken to a slaughter

house. The animals think that Boxer s life is going to be saved, when it was

really being taken away from him.

In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses

different forms of irony in many ways. First of all, the Friar marries Romeo

and Juliet to end their families feud, but the marriage ends up leading to their

death. This is an example of situational irony. Another example of irony is

when Juliet s parents are planning a wedding for her, when she is already

married. Also, in the end of the story, Juliet fakes her death to be with

Romeo. Romeo thought she was really dead and so he killed himself.

Juliet s fake death even fooled the one person she wanted to be with.

These are just a few of the many examples of irony found in these

classic literary works. The authors created irony in many ways and also

made it a big part of the plot. Irony is a key device in literature, and can be

found in many stories.