OthelloWilliam Shakespeare
Iago is called 'honest' more than fifty times.
Every character's trust is a knife the audience can see turning. The compliment becomes the accusation.
← The devices guide
Dramatic irony
When the audience knows something a character does not, so their words mean two things at once. The gap between what is said and what is true is where the effect lives.
How to spot it
Ask what you know at this exact moment that the speaker does not. Then reread the line with both meanings active.
Why writers use it
It turns the audience into a collaborator, and makes ordinary dialogue unbearable.
In the texts
My Last DuchessRobert Browning
A duke describes a portrait to a guest who has come about a marriage.
The duke thinks he is being charming; the reader can hear him confessing a murder to his next wife's family.
Common misread
Dramatic irony requires knowledge, not superiority. If you are laughing at a character rather than dreading for them, the effect has changed into something else.