Foster states from the very beginning, that irony trumps everything. He goes on to state that every piece of literature has a some kind of irony in it, from the simple yet obvious dramatic irony in Cinderella to the more played out irony in Romeo and Juliet. Irony can pretty much be used with everything and everything can pretty much be ironic. To substantiate his point, Foster gives several examples about irony like how George Peele created an ironic title and G. K. Chesterton's story about a man who is killed by an arrow with the title of "The Arrow of Heaven". The fact that he used so many examples to describe the different types of ironies in literature proves that irony is indeed present in everything and is by far the most important thing in literature.
When reading this chapter many different pieces of literature ran through my mind, but I decided not to be cliched with my selected example and decided to use an autobiography. One of the books that impacted me the most is Glass Castle, an autobiography about a woman's troubled life. When she was younger she was practically raised in the back of a car with three siblings and parents that seemed to be neglecting them. The title Glass Castle is ironic enough, considering that a glass castle was a promise that the father of Jeanette, the author, gave his children. But the irony goes way past what her father had promised her. Even though Jeanette and her siblings were ecstatic at the idea of a glass castle, a glass castle is too fragile and non-sustainable which could be a metaphor for Jeanette and her family. Throughout the book, Jeanette's parents would mistreat their children, but it would take a while for the reader to realize it because of the love Jeanette and her siblings still had for her parents. The way the children would still love and return to their parents even after all the neglect and abuse creates such a strong irony that makes a powerful and conflicted story.
Perhaps irony is used to capture the reader's attention, to keep him or her interested. What is a good story with plot twists and irony? They would all be boring and no one would be able to sit through and read it all. However, even if the story is marinated with irony, the reader will have to be sharp enough to get it. Irony is subtle, it's kind of like finding little treasures and being proud of oneself for getting the reference. This is why ironies are such little beauties in literature. Irony
The examples he uses that is found in literature mainly circles around plot twists and surprising events. He states that nearly all writers employ irony sometimes, although perhaps the frequency of the appearance of irony may vary. It seems as if with modern writers, irony plays a full-time part in their writings, to a point where readers now expect irony in everything they read. That's probably why they're modern writers, considering most of the ironies circle around thwarting traditional expectations. However, irony doesn't necessarily work for everyone. There are readers who won't and don't and can't understand irony, which basically removes the point of it entirely, perhaps ruining the book for him or her. But if there is irony in a book, it sure does trump everything else.
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