Dramatic Irony

The author uses irony to create his satire. More specifically, Brecht uses dramatic irony. This kind of irony is created when there’s “a situation in which the audience knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know” (Irony).

The characters don’t have all the information the audience has. We, the audience, know that Shui Ta and Shen Te are the same person, but of the characters, no one, except for Mrs. Shin, knows that Shui Ta and Shen Te are the same person. They all ask Shui Ta, “where is she? Where is Shen Te?” (101). Not even the gods appear to know these characters are the same person. We see their ignorance about this fact when one of the gods asks, “What have you done with our good woman of Setzuan” (101).

Because they don’t know the entire truth the people of Setzuan have accused Shui Ta of “doing away with [his] cousin Shen Te to take possession of her business” (97). When everyone is in the courthouse, we see the dramatic irony clearer than ever, speciallywhen Shui Tas asks everyone to leave so that he can make a confession to the gods. Everyone believes that “he’s guilty?” and that “he’s confessing!” (101), but because we know the whole truth, we know that he will confess not that he’s guilty of Shen Te’s murderer, but that he is Shen Te herself.

Works Cited

1. "Irony". Examples-Help! 2006. Web. April 19, 2010. <http://www.examples-help.org.uk/irony.htm>.
2. Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.