Irony comes in the three forms, verbal, situational and dramatic. In verbal irony, a word or phrase is used to suggest the opposite of what is meant. In Act III, Scene 5, Juliet has just spent her honeymoon night with Romeo. The two have been married secretly with only Friar Laurence and the Nurse aware of the situation. In this scene, Lady Capulet, who knows nothing about Romeo, informs Juliet that her father has agreed to marry her to Count Paris. Juliet is immediately distraught and argumentative over the situation and tells her mother that she doesn't wish to marry yet and that if she were to marry it would be to Romeo, a person she says she hates:
I will not marry yet, and when I do I swear
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris.
She is, of course, being ironic in this statement because the reality is that she is deeply in love with Romeo and has already married him, but she cannot reveal this to her mother. In fact, Juliet is quite unable to come up with an argument which will dissuade her parents from arranging the marriage with Paris. Despite her pleas, her father remains steadfast and threatens to disown her if she doesn't marry the Count. Even the Nurse has no answers other than urging Juliet to forget Romeo and do as her father wishes.
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