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What are examples of situational, dramatic, and verbal irony in "Greasy Lake"?
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In "Greasy Lake," verbal irony is evident when the boys claim they want to be "bad," meaning "cool," but end up acting truly malicious. Situational irony occurs when the boys mistake a car for a friend's, only to be attacked by its actual owner. Dramatic irony is present when the audience knows the corpse in the lake is Al, but the girls asking about him remain unaware of this grim fact.
Verbal irony is when a person says one thing, but means the opposite. The most common form of verbal irony is the use of sarcasm. A good example in the story is the repeated use of the word "bad". The boys in the first part of the story think they want to be "bad", by this they mean "cool" more than they mean actually bad as in evil spirited or mean, but they come to find out that they actually turn evil spirited in their pursuit of being "bad".
Situational Irony is when we expect one result and the situation turns out to be the opposite. In the story when the boys come upon the 57 Chevy, they think it belongs to a friend of theirs, so they flash their high beams on the car only to find out that not only is the owner not their friend, he beats...
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the boys to a pulp.
Dramatic Irony is when we, the audience, know what is going to happen before the characters know. When the girls in the third section ask where Al is, we know that Al is the owner of the chopper and the corpse in the lake, but the girls do not realize this fact, they are totally unaware.