♦ Irony: - A statement or a situation or an action which actually means the opposite of its surface meaning. - Irony is when there are two contradicting meanings of the same situation, event, image, sentence, phrase, or story. In many cases, this refers to the difference between expectations and reality.
• The first sentence of Pride and Prejudice is an example of irony: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
• This line from Samuel Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” describes the dark irony of a sailor dying of thirst on his boat while he is surrounded by water.
Source: An ABC of English Literature - Dr M Mofizar Rahman and literaryterms.net