Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony is that situation where the audience watching a play are fully aware what is happening on stage and in the story at any given moment, whereas and whilst the characters themselves appear to be totally unaware of what is happening to them.

There is another feature about dramatic irony. Many of the plots of Ancient Greek plays were based on well-known myths and legends, many of which would have been well-known to the contemporary audiences then. They, the public, all knew what was going to happen next. The use of a well-known myth or story meant that the audience was always in anticipation of the downfall of the principal character in the case of a tragedy as the play progressed. Dramatic Irony could work both ways.  Of course the playwright could change the plot of the myth or legend if he so wanted thereby creating a surprise for his audience who were expecting some other outcome, or they could have their ironic expectation satisfied.

References

Philip Vellacott (12 June 1975). Ironic Drama: A Study of Euripides' Method and Meaning. CUP Archive. ISBN 978-0-521-09896-0.

Helene P. Foley (15 March 2019). Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-4063-3.

Robert L. Perkins (2001). The Concept of Irony. Martin Antic: Clouds of Irony: Mercer University Press. pp. 161–. ISBN 978-0-86554-742-1.

On the pretense theory of irony. [PDF]

Some Aspects of Dramatic Irony in Sophoclean Tragedy
S. K. Johnson
The Classical Review
Vol. 42, No. 6 (Dec., 1928), pp. 209-214
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
https://www.jstor.org/stable/701419

Philological Museum vol 2/On the Irony of Sophocles - Wikisource

Parody

For the ancient Greeks, parody was a comic imitation of a serious poem. "Parody," in Greek and Roman times, referred to (1) "a poem of burlesque or parody in the Homeric style, mock epic", (2) various kinds of imitation, quotation, adaptation, and paraphrase usually comic but not necessarily so; and (3) punning and wordplay. Parody renders its subject's form, style and language ludicrous. A parody is a composition that imitates the style of another composition, normally for comic effect and often by applying that style to an outlandish or inappropriate subject.


References

Graham Ley (1 February 2012). A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater: Revised Edition. Parody: University of Chicago Press. pp. 74–. ISBN 978-0-226-15467-1.

Robert Chambers (2010). Parody: The Art that Plays with Art. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-0869-3.

Margaret A. Rose (9 September 1993). Parody: Ancient, Modern and Post-modern. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-42924-5.

Donald Sells (13 December 2018). Parody, Politics and the Populace in Greek Old Comedy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-06053-1.

James Robson; James E. Robson (2006). Humour, Obscenity and Aristophanes. Tragic Parody: Gunter Narr Verlag. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-3-8233-6220-3.

Aristotle - Poetics 1448a

Aristotle; Richard Janko (1987). Aristotle: Poetics. Hackett Publishing. pp. 164–. ISBN 0-87220-033-7.

ΠAPΩIΔIA
Fred W. Householder, Jr.
Classical Philology
Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan., 1944), pp. 1-9
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
https://www.jstor.org/stable/263900

Identification of Parodies in Aristophanes
Alfred Cary Schlesinger
The American Journal of Philology
Vol. 58, No. 3 (1937), pp. 294-305
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.2307/290328
https://www.jstor.org/stable/290328

The Basis of Ancient Parody
F. J. Lelièvre
Greece & Rome
Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jun., 1954), pp. 66-81
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
https://www.jstor.org/stable/641056

Indications of Parody in Aristophanes
Alfred Cary Schlesinger
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
Vol. 67 (1936), pp. 296-314
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.2307/283243
https://www.jstor.org/stable/283243

Demosthenes, Parody and the "Frogs"
Filippomaria Pontani
Mnemosyne
Fourth Series, Vol. 62, Fasc. 3 (2009), pp. 401-416
Published by: Brill
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27736351

Sick Humour: Aristophanic Parody of a Euripidean Motif?
F. D. Harvey
Mnemosyne
Fourth Series, Vol. 24, Fasc. 4 (1971), pp. 362-365
Published by: Brill
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4430022

Aristophanes and Sophron?
Lloyd W. Daly
The American Journal of Philology
Vol. 103, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), pp. 86-88
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.2307/293965
https://www.jstor.org/stable/293965

Euripides' parody of Aeschylus
Godfrey W. Bond
Hermathena
No. 118, SPECIAL NUMBER IN HONOUR OF HERBERT WILLIAM PARKE: Magistro Dilectissimo Discipuli (Winter 1974), pp. 1-14
Published by: Trinity College Dublin
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23040568

"Deinon Eribremetas": The Sound and Sense of Aeschylus in Aristophanes' "Frogs"
Elizabeth W. Scharffenberger
The Classical World
Vol. 100, No. 3 (Spring, 2007), pp. 229-249
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25434023

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sophron
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/parody

Cliffs Notes & Spark Notes on Some Greek Plays

Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles

Higgins, Charles, and Regina Higgins. CliffsNotes on The Oedipus Trilogy.
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/the-oedipus-trilogy/about-the-oedipus-trilogy
Oedipus the King
Oedipus at Colonus
Antigone

Oresteia Trilogy by Aeschylus

Milch, Robert J. CliffsNotes on Agamemnon, The Choephori, and The Eumenides.
The Oresteia Introductory Note: Agamemnon - Choerephori - Eumenides
Surviving Dramatic Works of Aeschylus

Some Plays by Aristophanes

Gary K Carey; James L Roberts (15 December 1983). CliffsNotes on Aristophanes' Lysistrata & Other Comedies. HMH Books. ISBN 978-0-544-18262-2.

Cliffs Notes on Greek classics
Mary Ellen Snodgrass (15 March 1988). Cliffs Notes on Greek classics. Cliffs Notes, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8220-0566-7
https://archive.org/details/B-001-024-179/mode/2up


Other References

Spark Notes

https://www.sparknotes.com/

Greek Classics - Spark Notes - Internet Archive

Aeschylus Agamemnon
The Libation Bearers
Prometheus Bound
Spark Notes on Agamemnon. from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/agamemnon/

Sophocles
Electra
The Oedipus Plays

Euripides
The Bacchae
Medea

Aristophanes
The Clouds
Lysistrata