What is dramatic irony?

Dramatic irony occurs when characters in a narrative are unaware of crucial information that the audience knows. This creates a situation where the audience may anticipate the consequences of the characters' actions or decisions based on that hidden information, leading to tension and engagement in the story. For instance, in a play, the audience might know that a character is walking into a trap while the character themselves is blissfully unaware, heightening the emotional impact of the scene.

The other options, while they touch on elements of storytelling, do not accurately define dramatic irony. They refer to aspects like predictability, ambiguity in character dialogue, or mismatches between dialogue and plot, none of which capture the essence of dramatic irony as it relates to the audience's knowledge versus the characters' ignorance.