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Socratic Irony
15
(start min 2.15)
Example A
In this scene from 'The Princess Bride', two men are engaged in a battle of wits over the princess. The man in black has poured poison in one of the goblets while the other man has to figure out which one it is safe to drink from or else he will die. The man in black pretends like he doesn't know where the poison has been placed in order to confuse his opponent even more.
Definition
Socratic Irony is pretending to be ignorant to a cause you are well aware of in order to expose the inconsistencies of someone else. It is fake ignorance to bring out the flaws of another. It involves skilled questioning to uncover another's secrets.
Socratic Irony
Citations
Example C
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Socratic+irony
http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Socratic%20irony
An example of socratic irony is seen in To Kill A Mockingbird. In this story, the father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who is defending a man in a case against a woman, Mayella Ewell, who is saying she was attacked and raped. He uses socratic irony by letting her plead her case, listening to her with seeming sincerity. She insists that she was at home and he came to her house, attacked, and raped her despite her best attempts to fight back. This is Atticus' reaction to her story.
Example B
Example: A professor never answers questions and does not explain key concepts of the course; however he expects students to come to class after having read their assignment, ready to answer the professor's questions and ace the upcoming test.
Example: A child asks his parents how the presents from "Santa" got under the Christmas tree to which the parents reply that they have no idea how the presents got under the tree.
By Cat, Patricia, and Simryn