Situational Irony

• When a character or the reader expects one thing, but something very different happens or is true.

• Ex. Your friend calls to tell you that she will not be calling you, because she is not allowed to use the phone. 

Dramatic Irony

• When the reader knows something that the character does not know.

• Ex. A character in a story is waiting for his mother to pick him up and take him to his soccer game. Readers learn that he falls asleep while waiting. When his mother gets home, she thinks he has gotten a ride from a friend. She goes to his game without him, to watch him play.

Verbal Irony

• When a character says one thing but means another. 

• Ex. After struggling through a difficult test, a student says, "Well, that was easy. All my studying really paid off."

​Historical Context of "The Nose:"

​

Gogol wrote “The Nose” during the age of Russian Enlightenment, Catherine the Great’s investment in Russian art, philosophy, and science. Best remembered for contributions to Opera, the Russian Enlightenment made it possible for writers like Gogol to make a living from their work. Still, despite this investment in the arts, Russians lived under the oppressive imperial rule with stark wealth disparities. As open criticism of society would have ended in censorship and possible arrest, Gogol relied on satire to critique Russian society.