Dramatic Irony in Gayle Forman’s If I Stay

Abstract

This research paper explores Dramatic Irony in Gayle For man’s novel If I Stay. The examination of irony is based on the young adult narrator Mia Hall’s ironic- situatedness in the novel. While narrating the story, the narrator’s account of events is figured out with a consciousness of a teenage girl and the consciousness of the adult writer, making her position ironic. This thesis attempts to present the first- person narrator Mia as a teenage girl becomes ironic when Mia, time and again, displays an as suredand experienced adult’s consciousness as a soul that makes her unreliable. Mike Cadden’s theory on Dramatic Irony and Linda Hutchen’s Irony’s Edged give this research a tool to question the authenticity of adolescent voice in the narrator where the writer is an adult, but she looks at all the things around her from a child’s point-of-view. This irony affects the young readers who are expected to read the narration by believing that the narrator is far more mature than them and giving them an unreal worldview instead of a realistic account from the young adult narrator’s perspective. The novelist takes a dual standard regarding the readers she envisions by constructing the narrator beyond the young readers’ expectations. The thesis showcases the dramatic irony by using double consciousness on the part of narration. Key Words: narrative, irony of narration, unreliable narrator, authenticity, point-of- view