Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more about the outcome than the characters. "The Gift of the Magi" - a short story written by O. Henry, is an example of dramatic irony in literature. The story is about a poor, married couple who is in a really bad economic situation; but they are still very much in love with each other. The story is set around their struggle to buy secret Christmas presents. The only valuable thing that Della has in her life is her beautiful, long hair and she cuts and sells it to buy a chain for her husband's pocket watch; and meanwhile, Jim sold his pocket watch to buy an amazing set of combs for his lovely wife. This is considered dramatic irony, because the audience knew a lot more about what’s going to happen than the characters.

An example of dramatic irony in real life will be a “prank call”. People pretend to be someone they are not; they come up with a fake name or an accent. After they develop this persona, they call a random person or someone they know and act out the scenario that they planned before. The target has no idea what’s going on, but the rest of the people enjoy the show.

Traditional and Modern Drama

Oedipus Rex - a play by Sophocles, is full of gripping examples of dramatic irony, and a lot of elements in this book will be considered complex for a modern audience. Greek theatre is a lot different in many ways than what the society sees on stage and television nowadays. The main difference is that the actors were all men; and in order to play a female role, they had to wear these masks with exaggerated and pronounced mouths and eyes. We want to see the facial expressions on actors’ faces; but masks would probably be more suitable, considering the fact that there were over 14,000 vulgar people in an outdoor theatre, and the majority of them were not able to see or hear anything at all. The masks also allow you to hide your face and it was possible for one person to have several roles if they did not have enough actors per play. Even though, traditional theatre is “the mother” of modern drama, they are still not going to be similar due to the change in the society in general. People were really barbarous, disrespectful and selfish; the actors always had to do something crazy and interesting to get audience’s attention. Nowadays, people are willing to pay lots of money to see a play, yet a lot of them cannot afford this luxury entertainment. 

America Falls Apart?

In my opinion, “Things Fall Apart” could definitely be the title of a book about the culture of 21st century America. I think that every time period has its own downfalls and accomplishments. There will always be a lot of cultural practices that people will consider morally wrong and “backwards”. When I first came to U.S.A, I was really surprised and shocked that Americans are not able to go and see a movie, do some shopping or just go to school without a car. There is no choice for people, you have to learn how to drive or you will have to spend the rest of your life lying on a sofa. The problem is not in just driving; everyone gains a lot of weight, because they do not simply move; I started to think that distance is a terrible thing, because my room is too far away from the fridge. Speaking of food, people no longer have to go and do grocery shopping, because you can get everything you need online.  People in Europe tend to go to the restaurants to have a good conversation, spend time with your family and try new delicacies; and here it seems that people just want to get an enormous plate of food and drink unlimited amount of soda.

People are also able to work from home, so you can just stay in your house and never get out of your comfort zone. Of course, people try to make life easier and more comfortable, but I think that it is not the best way to solve that problem. People gain a lot of weight and have hard times working out. I think America is falling apart, because life seems to be just about fulfilling our basic needs and nothing else. 

Twitter has no future

Nowadays, a lot of people cannot imagine their lives without social networks. The first thing teenagers do, when they wake up in the morning, is checking out their Instagram or Twitter to see what’s going on in life of their peers, relatives or celebrities.  Undoubtedly, social networks are a great technological breakthrough that promises many opportunities for people around the world, but progress comes with a price. Facebook users do not think of the consequences of their behavior when they post a tremendous amount of pictures and posts about their daily life that can actually be used against them in future. There were many cases when people bragged about every single detail about their upcoming vacation and burglars actually used this information to rob their houses. The whole idea of social networks is going to be considered barbaric in hundred years; people and future generations are going to regret about their internet activities. Posting inappropriate information on social media can hurt your chances of getting a job; and even if a person has hundreds of friends on Facebook, there is no real connection with these people.

The fact is that even if an individual gets rid of some pictures or messages on their laptops or smartphones, they are not going to disappear and government has an access to them. This idea is terrifying, and there are actually people who pay professionals lots of money to delete all the information that they once provided. Even though, there are some great aspects of this example, such as keeping in touch with people overseas, sharing knowledge but society misses these opportunities. Social networks will seem morally wrong and “backwards”, because it has more disadvantages, harm and bad influence on people.