Dying in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio says his wound is “not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but ’tis enough.” The figure is:

In Macbeth, Macbeth asks, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” The figure is:

In Macbeth, the witches chant, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” The figure is:

In Julius Caesar, Antony says, “I am no orator, as Brutus is,” while delivering the speech that turns Rome against Brutus. The figure is:

In Donne’s “Death, be not proud,” the speaker ends, “Death, thou shalt die.” The figure is:

In Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense,” the opening claim is chiefly a:

In Julius Caesar, Antony repeats “Brutus is an honorable man” while showing Caesar’s wounds. The verbal irony mainly:

Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” calls a child “a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food.” The reasonable diction serves to:

Pride and Prejudice opens, “It is a truth universally acknowledged” that a rich single man must want a wife. The irony works to:

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell says losing both parents “looks like carelessness.” The verbal irony chiefly:

In Hamlet, after Claudius calls him “my son” and asks why “the clouds still hang on” him, Hamlet replies, “Not so, my lord. I am too much i’ the sun.” The ironic wordplay allows Hamlet to:

In Candide, Pangloss insists that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” Voltaire’s irony uses the maxim to:

In “The Gift of the Magi,” Della and Jim sell the very treasures their gifts require, yet the narrator says, “they are the magi.” The outcome turns the gifts into:

In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the sailors face “Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.” The situational irony exposes:

Macbeth trusts “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth,” but Macduff was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d.” The gap exposes:

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo drinks poison beside Juliet, saying, “Here’s to my love! O true apothecary! / Thy drugs are quick.” The outcome turns his act into:

In Richard III, Richard cries, “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” The situational irony emphasizes:

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Fortunato says, “I shall not die of a cough,” and Montresor answers, “True—true.” The irony turns on:

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo says Juliet’s beauty shows death “Hath had no power yet.” The audience knows Juliet is drugged, not dead, so the line becomes:

In Othello, Othello says of Iago, “This fellow’s of exceeding honesty.” The audience’s extra knowledge is that:

In Macbeth, Duncan arrives saying, “This castle hath a pleasant seat.” The audience knows Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plan murder, so the line makes the castle seem:

In Hamlet, Hamlet says, “Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying,” but Claudius admits, “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” The audience knows:

In Twelfth Night, Malvolio reads, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.” The audience knows the letter is:

In King Lear, blind Gloucester says, “I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; / I stumbled when I saw.” The audience knows his guide is Edgar, so the irony stresses:

Donne ends “Death, be not proud,” “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” Unfolded, the paradox claims:

Dickinson writes, “Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne’er succeed.” The paradox means that:

Keats writes, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter.” The paradox claims that:

Blake writes in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Without Contraries is no progression.” The paradox makes which claim?

In Paradise Lost, Satan says, “The mind is its own place” and can make “a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” The paradox suggests that:

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” The paradox means that parting is: