Hi, just coming off a 10hr writing session and my mind's a little frazzled. Could someone tell me if the following situation is an example of irony? : WOMAN X's fiance cheating on her with a divorce lawyer. Or would it only count as 'irony' if it was HER divorce lawyer, and not just a random one? (Although who really 'has' a divorce lawyer prior to any cheating?) Does my question make sense? I hope it does.
im no expert on irony, but maybe it would be ironic if she cheated on the fiance' with the divorce lawywer, THEN they get divorced and that lawyer is the divorce lawyer. but i have no clue...
I'd say that was ironic. You have to assume that for everyone, infidelity is grounds for divorce, but yes I think it works ok as irony.
I think this idea could be ironic, but is not explicitly so as it is. I think the definition you are aiming to satisfy is: an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. As such, I'm not sure your events are contrary to what is expected, context dependant. If we are looking at this scenario from HUSBAND X's point of view and he telling FRIEND Y of WIFE X's shenanigans then it could be portrayed ironically thus: FY: How's the divorce going? HX: Great. It turns out she's been bedding some guy to boot! FY: Never! HX: It's true, and you'll never guess who. The bloody divorce lawyer. Hopefully this houses two cases of irony. The first in answering 'Great' to a situation that is clearly not great, and second by presenting the divorce lawyer as the last person you may expect to have been involved. You could improve that sense of contrariness in expectation in your narrative building by having the lawyer earlier presented as without reproach, or perhaps hideously ugly.
Irony is a weird thing. True that to be ironic, something is contrary to what might have been expected. But sometimes using irony becomes cliche. It's so frequently used that people often expect something ironic to happen and thus is it really irony anymore? Your situation does sound ironic though.
I think it would really depend on the rest of the story. I don't think cheating with a divorce lawyer is overly ironic in and of its self, but more of just a happy coincidence for the cheater. I would think it would be more ironic if the woman was having an affair with the Marriage counselor. That to me is more ironic. They are going to therapy to work on their failing marriage, then suddenly the woman is seeing the therapist by herself to work on "her," but little does her husband know that she is going to the hot therapists house and banging his brains out, instead of seeking mental help. But, that is also just my warped sense of irony. Never know. I might be totally wrong.
First: "Fiance" and "Spouse" are not interchangable. Second: I think the irony is if the wife knows that her spouse cheated with someone without knowing who specifically and then endws up hiring said person as her own divorce attorney.
In the strictest definition of the word, no that is not irony. Irony is a lot like sarcasm, where as somebody says one thing, but means another. Sarcasm is just a lot more blunt. Where as dramatic Irony is where the audience or reader knows something the characters do not, something usually like if two characters in love both try to reach each other, but one person sneaks out of their house to seek the one they love, while the other sneaks into the same house on the same night. That's an example of dramatic irony. You're talking about situational irony, which by definition doesn't actually exist. But for colloquial purposes, yeah that's a little ironic.
it's close, but not close enough, imo... would be ironic if they were married, not just formerly engaged...
