it means denying opportunity to all people so that everyone is disadvantaged. Society is leveled to the lowest common denominator so that no person will feel disadvantaged because someone else with greater talents has excelled.

Vonnegut's satire depends largely on hyperbole or exaggeration. He takes what were recent tendencies in US society in his time period to protect self-esteem and exaggerates them to an absurd level. In his dystopic society, everyone with any sort of talent or ability has to wear handicapping devices to destroy the effectiveness of their abilities. Harrison's intelligent father, for example, wears a hearing device that interrupts his thinking every few seconds with loud noises. The ballerina Harrison dances with starts out weighted down with weights so that she cannot be too graceful.

Vonnegut also uses dramatic irony to create comedy. Harrison's parents, for example, take their cruel and absurd situation as normal and accept that it is for the higher social good. We as an audience know the opposite is true.

Vonnegut also satirizes the use of force to solve problems when he has the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, shoot the dancers.

In "Harrison Bergeron," it is not simply the case that Kurt Vonnegut employs heavy use of irony but, moreover, he utilizes the different kinds of irony to searing effect. Generally speaking, the use of irony is divided into three subcategories: situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony. Vonnegut uses all three of these forms and occasionally will even employ more than one of them simultaneously.

An example of this can be seen in the short story's opening paragraph, which combines verbal irony and situational irony:

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way.

To summarize, verbal irony tends to rely on sarcasm, where the literal meaning of the words are in opposition with the intended meaning behind it. In this case, we have the narrator allegedly praising the attainment of genuine equality, even as he is (in truth) ridiculing the very ideal of equality in this sense. As the paragraph continues from here, and as we begin to learn more about what this equality entails, Vonnegut begins to introduce the situational irony that will shape his story in general.

When we imagine equality, we tend to envision it as an ideal, imagining that a future that successfully achieves this ideal would be a more just society than the one we currently live in. But Vonnegut ruthlessly upends those expectations, exploring a world where equality is imposed, and all forms of genuine self-actualization and excellence are ruthlessly suppressed through the use of force. In the process, his ironic tone begins to approach a level of absurdity: with their handicaps in effect, for example, the ballet dancers cannot dance (even though that is their occupation), thus defeating the very purpose of having televised ballet to begin with. Vonnegut's picture of an equal society, thus, takes on a degree of madness: it is entirely irrational, which is precisely the point he is making regarding the very notion of equality to begin with.

Finally, there is dramatic irony, where the audience is aware of story-relevant details even as the characters are not. An example of this can be found in the scene where Hazel suggests that George relieve some of his handicap and relax while in the safety of his house. Here we see George alluding to what he refers to as "the dark ages," a time "with everybody competing against everybody else." Ultimately, in this scene, they are speaking disparagingly about the society of the real world, viewing it as a mad, unjust dystopia, even as readers would view the same of the fictional society in which they reside.

All of these uses of irony add up towards a brutally satirical picture of what equality really means and the methods that might be required to impose it. In so doing, Vonnegut is trying to hold up to criticism and ridicule the very utopian ideals that lie behind this notion of equality altogether. For Vonnegut, it seems, this form of equality amounts to a denial of human achievement and can only result in widespread misery.

"Harrison Bergeron" is structured as satire to offer a critique on people's claims that we should all be equal.  Through the story, Vonnegut questions the assumed benefits of having a truly equal society.  Throughout the story, ironic situations work in the service of developing the story's theme.  For example, Harrison is an extraordinary person:  he is physically attractive and strong, he is incredibly intelligent, and he is talented.  As a result, he is forced to wear a series of handicaps to make him "equal" to those who are different from him.  Ironically, Harrison is able to break free of those handicaps and still be the person who he really is.

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters in a story do not.

In Harrison Bergeron, George and Hazel buy in completely to their society's values. The chief value is that everyone must be equal. Anyone who stands out in any way is given a "handicap" so that he or she will be no better than anyone else. George, for example, is highly intelligent, so loud noises go off in his ears from a radio transmitter that he is legally required to wear in his ear:

Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel both think it is perfectly reasonable that George should be handicapped in this way. They think of their son, Harrison, who rebels against this system, as "abnormal"—they find nothing wrong with the system itself.

This is an example of dramatic irony because we, as an audience, know it is utterly absurd (laughable) and destructive for a society to treat its citizens this way and to refuse to use their talents and abilities.

Ultimately, "Harrison Bergeron" is a criticism of egalitarianism (as well as society's tendency to advance social progress through government action). Vonnegut advances this criticism by creating a dystopia in which everyone has been made equal through the use of coercive force. In characterizing this dystopia, Vonnegut makes heavy use of irony and exaggeration, in order to convey the irrationality and madness of this world he is depicting.

First, note that "Harrison Bergeron" is a dystopian story: it provides a picture of the future, set in 2081, in which people have been made equal through constitutional amendment. This has been achieved through the use of handicaps and is backed by threat of force. As is often the case with dystopian stories, Vonnegut uses this vision of the future to provide a warning to his own society, depicting these egalitarian ideals as potentially dangerous and dehumanizing.

Probably the one literary device that ties this story together more than any other is irony. At the heart of irony, you will always find a tension. Note that irony can generally be divided into three kinds: verbal, situational, and dramatic. What is unique about "Harrison Bergeron" is that it uses all three.

In situational irony, the tension lies between expectations and outcomes. In this case, Vonnegut's entire dystopian vision of the future is an example of situational irony: we would expect that a world where all people are equal would result in a more utopian picture, but Vonnegut subverts those expectations.

Verbal irony, on the other hand, involves a tension within the language of the text, by which its literal meaning conflicts with its intended message. You can see an example of this in the story's opening paragraph, beginning from the story's first sentence: "It was the year 2081, and everybody was finally equal." Consider these words, taken independently of any context, and now apply them within the context of Vonnegut's dystopia: that sense of contradiction is an example of verbal irony in practice.

Finally, in dramatic irony, readers are aware of information that the characters within the story do not have. In this case, readers are aware of this society's irrationality and madness. Vonnegut uses dramatic irony to invoke genuine tragedy as well: you can see this at the end of the story, when George and Hazel have watched their son get executed on television and later forget what they have seen.

Finally, Vonnegut makes heavy use of exaggeration in his depiction of characters—particularly in his descriptions of Harrison and the ballerina, who exist as symbols for human excellence and are depicted as blatantly superhuman in their ability. Consider Harrison's size, strength, superhuman intelligence (all at the age of fourteen), as well as the imagery of the dancers leaping up towards the ceiling (a distance of thirty feet). This entire scene has a sense of unreality and distortion to it, reflecting the distorted dystopia in which it is set.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., uses irony with great effect in his short story "Harrison Bergeron." 

The name "Diana Moon Glampers" is ironic in itself. "Diana" was the Roman goddess of the moon, suggesting that the woman who holds the office of Handicapper General is lofty and worthy. Giving her the middle name "Moon" is a way mocking the society by showing how dumbed-down it is, and "Glampers" is an ugly-sounding name that seems to be the antithesis of a goddess.

The fact that all the television announcers in the society have a "serious speech impediment" is ironic because in our society, those would be the last people chosen as announcers. 

To state that the ballerina has an "unfair voice" is ironic. How could someone's "warm, luminous" voice be unfair? We might think it unfair if someone is born with a permanently raspy voice, but to be born with a lovely voice should be considered a blessing. That people cannot be happy for others' giftedness shows the warped thinking of this society. 

That Harrison is executed so easily by Diana Moon Glampers after he declares his utter supremacy is also an unexpected twist in the story.

Finally, the ending of the story is highly ironic. After witnessing the capture and death of their son, Hazel forgets it within a matter of a minute or two, remembering only that she had seen "something real sad on television." Many parents who have lost a child, and many others who have lost loved ones, believe at least initially that they will never be able to forget the horror and trauma of that tragedy. George has for some reason stopped watching his son on TV and has left to get a beer, trivializing what should have been the most important thing in his life at that time.

Vonnegut uses irony throughout the story to mock and critique the dystopian society he has created.

"Harrison Bergeron" contains much irony. The leaders of this society have tried to achieve equality by making everyone equally talented, equally beautiful, equally intelligent, and so on. But instead of working to improve the conditions of citizens, they punish the outliers of success, forcing them to endure handicaps to lessen their abilities. George is intelligent, so whenever he has an intelligent thought, he is forced to endure painful sounds being pumped into his ears to break up his thoughts. We can infer that his wife isn't nearly as smart as she is forced to endure no such handicap herself. George is also strong, so he is required to carry around a forty-seven pound bag which is padlocked to his neck, making it harder for him to move.

The great irony is that this society mistakes sameness for equality. We typically consider equality in terms of rights and laws and believe that everyone should be granted an equal chance to be happy, productive, and successful.

Instead of working to ensure this occurs, this society has chosen to do the opposite—punish those who excel in some area so that no one excels at anything. Everyone is the same, and they are equally hampered in mental abilities, physical abilities, and appearance.

It is also worth noting that the handicaps which are designed to hide great abilities and beauty actually highlight those same attributes. Hazel knows that the ballerina must be beautiful because

the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.

Vonnegut's point, then, is that total equality among all citizens can be a dangerous proposition if the understanding of equality is "sameness."

Let us remember that verbal irony is when words are said that are the opposite of the truth. In this excellent short story, we can see verbal irony through the description of how the hindrances that ensure perfect equality impact activities such as the dancing that George and Hazel watch on the television. Consider the way, for example, that Hazel describe the dance on the television by the ballerinas as being "real pretty" and "nice." Of course, George is able to realise that there is verbal irony in this statement:

They weren't really very good--no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.

Of course, these ruminations are swiftly brought to a close by another loud sound that comes from his ear radio, scattering his thoughts. Verbal irony is thus used to explore the equality in this society and the devastating impact it has had on individuals.

In a work of literature, situational irony occurs when there's a discrepancy between what's expected and what actually happens. A prime example of this takes place in "Harrison Bergeron" when we're informed that "April still drove people crazy by not being springtime." This gives the reader the impression of normality, that apart from the weather, everything in this society is just fine. Yet our expectations are suddenly shattered when we discover that Harrison's been arrested for trying to overthrow the government. Straight away, we realize that this is no ordinary society.

Our initial impressions are confirmed by another piece of situational irony. Harrison's parents, George and Hazel, far from being devastated by their son's arrest, feel absolutely no emotion whatsoever. That's because George is forced to wear a handicap that prevents him from thinking, and Hazel is considered have low intelligence and so has a very limited attention span. Once again, our expectations are confounded. Parents are normally supposed to be concerned if their children are arrested, especially for a serious crime like overthrowing the government. But not George and Hazel, for the reasons just given.

Let us remind ourselves that situational irony is based on plot, and is the term used to describe a sudden twist in the course of events that makes the precise opposite of what we expect to happen occur. A classic example would be a rags-to-riches story in which a poor person suddenly becomes rich at the end.

If we examine this term in relation to this excellent tale, we can see that the situational irony relates to Harrison Bergeron's sudden appearance on the TV show and how it is dealt with. The way in which Harrison bursts onto the show, crowns himself Emperor and takes one of the dancers for his Empress, then proceeds to dance in a way that defies gravity itself, leads us to believe that he will mount a successful revolution against handicapping and end this era of forced equality and no competition. It is therefore a great shock and surprise to us when this ending does not occur, and the dance is rudely interrupted:

It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.

The grim situational irony of this story therefore relates to the way in which Harrison Bergeron's revolution is cruelly crushed with his violent and sudden murder, and the change that the story looked to offer us never comes to pass.

"Harrison Bergeron" is replete with irony as a narrative about a society that assures that all people are "equal." The opening lines certainly are ironic as it relates the forced equality:  

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.  They were equal every which way.  Nobody was smarter than anybody else.  Nobdy was better looking than anybody else.  Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.  All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amerndments...and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Likewise, the intelligent are made to wear the "Handicap Ear Radio" so that they will not take unfair advantage of others.  So, "normal" ironically is average and ignorant. 

As a modern fable, "Harrison Bergeron" is an exaggerated version of some of the "progressive" educational programs designed to ensure that no one is left behind in the learning process.  Test results now show that public schools are  faring worse than before the great "concern." Thus, Vonnegut's story is an indictment against twentieth-century people who are willing to accept mediocrity in order to eliminate "unfair" competition.  "Everyone gets a trophy whether he/she sits on the bench or plays; as long as the person is on the team, he/she wins, too." 

Harrison Bergeron's error is not that he is unwilling to accept mediocrity; he wishes to usurp power.  Healthy competition is what makes people stronger spiritually, mentally, and physically.  Afterall, Darwin's survival of the fittest is based upon natural competition.

Kurt Vonnegut's celebrated short story "Harrison Bergeron" is considered a dystopian science fiction short story that is satirical in nature. In "Harrison Bergeron," Vonnegut creates a dystopian American society set in the year 2081, where the Constitution has been amended to ensure complete uniformity and equality in every facet of life. In order to create a completely uniform, mundane populace, the oppressive United States government forces talented individuals to wear cumbersome, debilitating handicaps that severely limit their capabilities.

Vonnegut's short story is considered a work of dystopian science fiction because the story is set in the future, incorporates technological innovations, and involves great suffering in the imagined state. Vonnegut's work is also considered a satire because it humorously takes aim at governments and politicians by taking egalitarianism to incredible extremes. Vonnegut's biting satire is depicted through his exaggeration of complete equality and the ludicrous laws, which force readers to question certain government policies and analyze the concept of equality.