Define dramatic irony and trace how Alcott lets readers sense Beth's fragile health before the March family fully names it.
Dramatic irony is a gap between what the reader knows and what a character understands. It is different from a plain surprise: a surprise catches the reader off guard too, while dramatic irony puts the reader a step ahead, watching a character walk toward something the reader can already half-see coming. The tension does not come from "what happens" but from "when will they realize it."
When Beth catches scarlet fever after quietly helping a poorer neighbor family, the Hummels, through their own illness, Alcott lets the danger build through small, almost throwaway details -- a headache dismissed, a shortness of breath brushed off as tiredness -- well before any character says the word "danger" out loud. A careful reader starts to feel uneasy earlier than the March family does, because the reader is trained by novels to notice exactly this kind of quiet warning sign.
Mastery looks like: They can point to a specific detail that creates dramatic irony and explain exactly what the reader knows that the character does not yet.
Common stumbles: Confusing dramatic irony with a plain plot surprise; noticing that something ominous happens without naming the specific gap between reader-knowledge and character-knowledge.