Understatement
While one can find a substantial ironic component to the entire novel as a collective entity, the really fun ironic elements in the story appear individually. One such element is this example of pervasive comic understatement:
“But how could he manage to burn her dress? She'd have to not be wearing it, and that posed a certain challenge in and of itself…”
Delayed Irony
A little bit of irony is introduced that doesn’t pay off until the next entry in the series. The identity of society gossip maven Lady Whistledown is not yet known at this point and the discussion turns to the possibility that her secret identity might disguise the fact that she is, herself a Bridgerton. She’s not, it turns out, but almost might as well be—and, in fact, will become one through contractual agreement. Making the following display of smug self-certainty all the more ironic:
“Maybe Lady Whistledown is a Bridgerton, after all.”
“Impossible. Not,” he added rather forcefully, “that we’re not smart enough to pull it off. Rather, the rest of the family would be too smart not to figure it out.”
Opening Line
The opening line of the novel situates the circumstances of the upcoming plot: the girl’s a bastard and the boy’s a Bridgerton. That’s not the ironic part. The ironic part is the circumstances of how people went about approaching the topic bastardy back when illegitimacy had absolutely no legal standing back then. It was either ironic or absurd or, more likely, about half of one and fifty percent of the other:
“Everyone knew Sophie was a bastard, and no one talked about it, and they were all quite happy with this arrangement.”
Stating the Obvious
One of the most remarkable properties of irony is that it can be created from saying the opposite of the truth just as easily as it can from a full-scale admission of factual truth. Irony really is exceptionally flexible. Benedict could have framed his retort here either way and maintained the irony, but chose to go with the former:
"It's my home," Cavender shot back, "and she's my maid. And she'll do what I want.”
"I wasn't aware that slavery was legal in this country," Benedict murmured.
The Limit of Irony’s Power
The sky-high limit of the power of irony is also demonstrated by Benedict in another confrontation over patriarchal subjugation of the female. When engaged just right under the perfect confluence of circumstances, raising an ironically impossible course of action can actually be the very thing which completely alters the outcome:
“Oh, for the love of God,” Benedict snarled. “Will you let go of her or will I have to shoot your damned hand off?”
Benedict wasn’t even holding a gun, but the tone of his voice was such that the man let go instantly.
