What precisely I have in mind by structural irony can be shown by contrast with the earlier discussion of non-verbal signals to irony, where the pointer to the presence of irony consisted in the discrepancy between the ironic statement and the context in which it is made. Where the contrast is between the ironic statement and another context we are dealing with the specific category of structural irony. It can be detected in the romance informing the relationship between two characters or two scenes, and it is under these two headings that I wish to conduct the argument of the present chapter.

The relationship between characters (Hartmann)

With each of these types of structural irony we once more come close to the irony of values, but this is especially true of the first type, for the juxtaposition of two characters can also suggest a comparison of the values for which they stand, no matter whether we are invited to look more critically at both sets of values or only one. In other words, the range covered by the operation of structural irony is less important than the fact that here too we can entertain second thoughts about some courtly values, although we shall once more observe that this questioning does not amount to a total rejection of all courtly values, but is meant to define more closely the essentials of the courtly ideal.