9 Estiningtyas 2015 explores it on The Significance of Dobby in the Plot of J.K.
Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Out of all the studies, the most similar study to the one the researcher discusses is the one written by
Wibowo in 2001. Analysing irony of both the characters and story used in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Wibowo relates it to the messages the novel conveys
which becomes the only difference compared to this study. This study is expected to be a complement to other studies for it discusses
relation between irony and the plot of story. For this study is the first study in Sanata Dharma University focusing on The Rainmaker
– this study offers new perspective and understanding of both the irony and the story. Therefore, in order
to support the analysis, the writer uses theories of irony and theories on plot.
B. Review of Related Theories
In this part, there are the theories to be used in analysing the novel, namely theory on irony and theory on plot. The writer adopted several theories which are
closely related to analysis.
1. Theories of Irony
In this section, the researcher discusses theories of irony brought forward by the experts. The researcher elaborates the definitions and types of irony which
are discussed into separate headings. The two parts are both essential to further analyse irony in the story deeply.
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a. Definitions
According to Dube, the term of ir ony “involves both an incongruity and
the opposite of what one expects” quoted in Koesnosoebroto, 1988 p. 135. Booth 1974 calls irony as the good mark on distinguishing a good literary work in
twentieth century. Similarly, Jay 2003 states that irony is a figurative language which creates the opposite meaning of the literal meaning. On 2011, Burgers,
Mulken and Schellens argue that irony can be defined as an “utterance with a
literal evaluation that is implicitly contrar y to its intended evaluation” p. 186. In
A Glossary of Literature Terms , irony is the root sense in making discrepancies,
or of a dissembling, what is revealed and what the case really is Abrams, 2012 p. 184.
Rockliffe 2006, pp. 28-32 in Tristan Corbiere and the Poetics of Irony explains that irony has classically been one of rhetorical trope
– though it is different from rhetoric
– involving a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. Booth 1974 calls this is traditional verbal irony because it makes the
readers rejecting literal meaning of what is said. Besides, according to Booth 1974, irony takes place
because of “either some incongruity among the words or between the words and something else that he knows
”. Irony is not intended to hide the truth, but the texture of irony shows diversity of contradictory selves
which may exist in utterances. Rockliffe 2006, p. 38 describes irony as a transformation which is not
semantic because it does not change the meaning; but “as the matrix will always
have a positive or negative orientation, the transformation can consist ‘of nothing PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
