The irony of women suffrage
The reader finds it satirical that the narrator's mother is starving to death to make the world a brighter place. Starving to death might be considered a strategy to punish the offenders, but at the same time, it is a stupid act because it leads to unnecessary death. The narrator says, “Mum starved herself for suffrage, Grandmother claiming it was just like Mum to take a cause too far. Mum said she had no choice. Besides, she said, starving made the world brighter, took away the dull edges, disappointment.”
The drip intended for the dying soldiers
Ironically, the narrator's mother is given a drip intended for soldiers, and eventually, she dies. The narrator says, "She said this when she was still speaking, or when she still speaking, or when she still could be heard before they gave her the drip intended for the dying soldiers, and here, said the attendant, wasted on a woman by her own land."
The Irony of William
Despite knowing that William is a married man, the narrator’s mother sometimes misbehaved with him. The narrator writes, "Wily, Mum, had called William. A sparkling prig, she said, as if he were in the room, and she was still flirting, arguing in the way they did. That she loved him desperately, I understood, though she never fully said – William still married to an important person's daughter, Mum a widow or worse, an educated woman, left long ago by my father, lost or dead in Ceylon."
The narrator’s mother’s death
After the narrator's mother dies, she is only thirteen, and she is asked to play the piano. It is ironic that the narrator refuses and says the younger brother should play it. The narrator thinks that the burial is an opportunity for Thomas to display his piano talent. The narrator asks, "Thomas would always play. AN so beautifully, who could know whether the mourners were weeping at the sight of Mum dead or the talents of her crippled son?”
The marriage between the nurse and milkman
Even before the marriage between the nurse and milkman occurs, the narrator predicts that they will live a miserable life. Ironically, the narrator sees the horrible future in a marriage that does not concern her. The narrator says, "Nurse will marry the milkman, Michael, and settle with him in Wales to live a perfectly miserable life. Children and children. Chores. Michael will drink in the way men do, and one thing will lead to the other."
