Example of Irony


Recently I had a test in college that asks us to give an example of irony.


I wrote this word by word:



An astronaut had over 200 missions into space over two decades. Ironically, two days after he returned from his latest mission, he tripped on a banana peel and died.



But I did not get any marks for it (it weighs 3 marks). Is it not an example of irony?



Answer



Your college needs to phrase its questions better. You have given a totally acceptable example of what Nordquist ( http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/ironyterm.htm ) calls situational irony while they probably wanted an example of what he calls verbal irony (antiphrasis). He lists a third type of irony; I've misplaced the article I know I filed somewhere, which lists about six, if my memory serves me right.


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