Dramatic irony is when the reader has more insider knowledge of the situation than the characters so the words and actions of the characters have a meaning that is different to them than from us.
In Act 3 when Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza went to the Embassy Ball, the Hostess was skeptical of Eliza and asked Nepommuck to find out who she was. Higgins and Pickering were worried that Nepommuck would find out that Eliza was a fraud and that Higgins would lose the bet. Towards the end of the ball, Nepommuck reported back to the hostess with the information he found out that Eliza was indeed a fraud- she was "actually a Hungarian".
ACT 3:
HOSTESS ...But if she is not English what is she?
NEPOMMUCK Hungarian.
ALL THE REST Hungarian!
NEPOMMUCK Hungarian. And of royal blood. I am Hungarian. My blood is royal.
HIGGINS Did you speak to her in Hungarian?
NEPOMMUCK I did. She was very clever. She said "Please speak to me in English: I do not understand French." French! She pretends not to know the difference between Hungarian and French. Impossible: she knows both.
HIGGINS And the royal blood? How did you find that out?
NEPOMMUCK Instinct, maestro, instinct. Only the Magyar races can produce that air of the divine right, those resolute eyes. She is a princess.
HOST What do you say, Professor?
HIGGINS I say an ordinary London girl out of the gutter and taught to speak by an expert. I place her in the Drury Lane.
NEPOMMUCK Ha ha ha! Oh, maestro, maestro, you are mad on the subject of cockney dialects. The London gutter is the whole world for you.
Higgins, Pickering, and the audience knows the truth about Eliza so it is amusing to see others be deceived.
In Act 3 when Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza went to the Embassy Ball, the Hostess was skeptical of Eliza and asked Nepommuck to find out who she was. Higgins and Pickering were worried that Nepommuck would find out that Eliza was a fraud and that Higgins would lose the bet. Towards the end of the ball, Nepommuck reported back to the hostess with the information he found out that Eliza was indeed a fraud- she was "actually a Hungarian".
ACT 3:
HOSTESS ...But if she is not English what is she?
NEPOMMUCK Hungarian.
ALL THE REST Hungarian!
NEPOMMUCK Hungarian. And of royal blood. I am Hungarian. My blood is royal.
HIGGINS Did you speak to her in Hungarian?
NEPOMMUCK I did. She was very clever. She said "Please speak to me in English: I do not understand French." French! She pretends not to know the difference between Hungarian and French. Impossible: she knows both.
HIGGINS And the royal blood? How did you find that out?
NEPOMMUCK Instinct, maestro, instinct. Only the Magyar races can produce that air of the divine right, those resolute eyes. She is a princess.
HOST What do you say, Professor?
HIGGINS I say an ordinary London girl out of the gutter and taught to speak by an expert. I place her in the Drury Lane.
NEPOMMUCK Ha ha ha! Oh, maestro, maestro, you are mad on the subject of cockney dialects. The London gutter is the whole world for you.
Higgins, Pickering, and the audience knows the truth about Eliza so it is amusing to see others be deceived.