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.