Irony

==Definition==
IRONY has meanings that extend beyond its use merely as a figure of speech. VERBAL IRONY, saying the opposite of what one means, is often confused  with sarcasm and with satire.
SARCASM and SATIRE both imply ridicule, one on the colloquial level, the other on the literary level. Sarcasm is simply bitter or cutting speech, intended to wound the feelings (it comes from a Greek word meaning to tear flesh). It is cruel, and means to hurt.
Satire is a more formal term, usually applied to written literature rather than to speech, and ordinarily implying a higher motive: it is ridicule (either bitter or gentle) of human folly or vice, with the purpose of bringing about reform or at least of keeping other people from falling into similar folly or vice.  
Irony, on the other hand, is a literary device or figure that may be used in the service of sarcasm or ridicule or may not. In DRAMATIC IRONY the discrepancy in not  between what the speaker says and what he means, but between what the speaker says and what the author means. The speaker’s words may be perfectly straightforward, but the author, by putting these words in a particular speaker’s mouth, may be indicating to the reader ideas or attitudes quite opposed to those the speaker is voicing.
==Examples==