The narrator in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow makes use dramatic irony.
This type of irony is popular in works of art such as movies, books, poems and plays. It occurs when the audience is aware of something that the characters in the story are not aware of.
In the case of Irving's story, no one knows what happened to Mr. Crane. They see horse tracks, Ichabod's hat, and a pumpkin, and they all assume the Horseman got him. The reader however is already aware of what really happened.
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Other types of irony include verbal and situational.
Verbal irony is the use of words to mean something different from what a person actually says.
The main feature of verbal irony that sets it apart from the other different types of irony is that it is used by a speaker intentionally. It occurs in a conversation where a person aims to be understood as meaning something different to what his or her words literally mean.
Situational irony involves a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. It occurs when the exact opposite of what is meant to happen, happens.
Check out Five Ways to Use Dramatic Irony in Your Writing shared by PublishingCrawl.com.