This slideshow was prepared to help a student who is studying the play Romeo and Juliet for Form 2 Language Arts in Hong Kong.

1. Situational Irony
in Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet
Created for a Form 2 student
studying in Hong Kong

2. Definition
Situational irony is defined as:
“An occasion in which the outcome is significantly different
from what was expected or considered appropriate.”
http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/situationalironyterm.htm

3. The Ball
Situation: Romeo is in love with Rosaline and
wants her to be in love with him.
Proposed Solution: Go to the Capulet’s Ball
and make her fall in love with him.
Expected Outcome: Rosaline will fall in love
with him.
Actual Outcome: Romeo falls in love with Juliet
who falls in love with him.

4. Why is this ironic
“An occasion in which the outcome is significantly different
from what was expected or considered appropriate.”
Romeo falling in love with Juliet is vastly different from the
expected outcome of Rosaline falling in love with Romeo.

5. The Marriage
Situation: Romeo and Juliet are in love and want to get married.
Proposed Solution: They go to Friar Lawrence to persuade him
to marry them.
Expected Outcome: Friar Lawrence agrees to perform the
ceremony believing the love of Romeo and Juliet will bring the
feud between the Montagues and the Capulets to an end.
Actual Outcome: The feud actually does come to an end, but
only because Romeo and Juliet die as events unfold that relate
to their getting married.

6. Why is this ironic
“An occasion in which the outcome is significantly different
from what was expected or considered appropriate.”
The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are vastly different from
the expectation that they will live happily in love. Even
though the two families are now united, the fact that the
lovers have had to die in order for this to happen is not
appropriate nor what is expected when Friar Lawrence
agrees to marry them.

7. Romeo encounters Tybalt
Situation: Romeo has married Juliet and he does not wish
conflict with her favoured cousin Tybalt.
Solution: Romeo brushes aside Tybalt’s insults and challenges.
Expected Outcome: No harm will come to Tybalt.
Actual Outcome: Mercutio is angered by both Tybalt’s insults
and Romeo’s perceived cowardness and he accepts the duel.
Tybalt kills Mercutio and in his grief Romeo takes revenge and
kills Tybalt.

8. Why is this ironic
“An occasion in which the outcome is significantly different
from what was expected or considered appropriate.”
The expected and actual outcomes are vastly different.
Romeo tries to avoid harming Tybalt and in doing so sets
off a chain of reactions which leads first to Mercutio's
death, then Tybalt’s. This then leads to Romeo’s expulsion
from Verona and the subsequent events that lead to his
and Juliet’s deaths.

9. Juliet fakes her own death
Problem: Juliet must marry Paris but she is already secretly
married to Romeo who is now banished.
Solution: To avoid bigamy and to get Romeo back, Juliet drinks
a potion which makes her appear dead.
Expected Outcome: Romeo will return at the time she will awake
and they will be together.
Actual Outcome: Romeo does not learn that Juliet is not really
dead and when he finds her in the crypt he kills himself. She
then finds him dead and kills herself.

10. Why is this ironic
“An occasion in which the outcome is significantly different
from what was expected or considered appropriate.”
The expected and actual outcomes are vastly different.
Instead of being alive and together the two lovers end up
dead together.

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