ABSTRACT
The possibility of taking an ironical view may be directly derived from something as fundamental as the uniquely human capacity for using language 'symbolically'. The ironical relationship between the artist and the work of art cannot simply be that of observer and observed, the work not being independent of the artist. The ironist is potentially capable, perhaps inclined by nature, to look at the real world with the same eye. There are three uses of irony which do not call for any special justification. Irony may be used as a rhetorical device to enforce one's meaning. It may be used, in any of the Four Modes, as a satiric device to attack a point of view or to expose folly, hypocrisy, or vanity. It may be used as a heuristic device to lead one's readers to see that things are not so simple or certain as they seem, or perhaps not so complex or doubtful as they seem.
