Abstract
Jane Austen is a great irony maestro. Irony is the most remarkable feature of her works. Sense and Sensibility is Jane Austen’s first published novel. Through extensive use of irony, Austen shapes a series of vivid characters with distinctive individuality in this novel. Moreover, her works win the praise of readers and critic because of the humorous language and fascinating story. This paper carefully analyzes the use and function in Sense and Sensibility mainly from verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony and general irony, to prove the important effect of Austen’s irony in shaping characters, highlighting the theme, showing the charm of language and creating literary style.
Keywords Jane Austen; Sense and Sensibility; irony
Contents
Abstract I
Contents I
Introduction 2
1. Literature Review 3
2. Introduction of Irony 5
3. Analysis of Irony in Sense and Sensibility 6
3.1 Verbal Irony 6
3.2Dramatic Irony 7
3.3 Situational Irony 7
3.4 General Irony 8
4. Significance of Irony in Jane Austen’s Novels 10
4.1 Shaping Characters 10
4.2 Highlighting the Theme 10
5. Conclusion 12
References 13
