Read the excerpt from romeo and juliet, act i, scene v. romeo: o! then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. juliet: saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. 105 romeo: then move not, while my prayers’ effect i take. thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg’d. [kissing her.] juliet: then have my lips the sin that they have took. romeo: sin from my lips? o trespass sweetly urg’d! give me my sin again. this is an example of dramatic irony because a. the audience is relieved that romeo has found a suitable partner. b. the audience is eager to discover rosaline’s opinion of the couple. c. romeo and juliet are shy characters who usually avoid social events. d. romeo and juliet have yet to discover that they are from feuding families.

Dramatic irony is when something happens in a work of fiction, piece of art, or a play when the audience (you and me) know something that the characters do not. Because of this, the dramatic irony would be:

D. Romeo and Juliet have yet to discover that they are from feuding families.

The answers with Rosaline are irrelevant because she is unimportant, and never actually says anything throughout the entirety of the play. We also do not really see that they are shy characters who usually avoid social events, and even if we do, it is somewhat unimportant and not very dramatic in the sense of irony. Romeo and Juliet at this point in the play have just met. They have seemingly fallen in love at first sight and think that they are ordinary people their families would not hate for them to be with. At this point, only the audience knows that one is a Montague and that the other is a Capulet.