Dramatic irony and guilt
Mala's guilt is largely withheld from the reader by dramatic irony. The irony unfolds to construct drama as mitigating circumstances complicate the reader's sense of judgment. By the end of the book, the reader has learned more or less the whole story of Mala's father, his own life of challenge and difficulty, his moral demise, his alcoholism, and the existential nightmare he creates in his children by raping them. Mala commits a murder in the book, but even she is surprised when she gets in trouble. She projects her confidence with Otoh, assuming that obviously she is the hero. She is clearly a victim, and her father is a villain, but ironically, guilt is a still proven to be a thorny problem.
The paternal abuser
The abuse of a father is inherently ironic because of the role that any reader would associate with fatherhood. Instead of sacrificing for his children, he sacrifices his children and their innocence, their very lives, to himself. He consumes their lives and dominates them. He makes himself into an intentional abuser of the children and treats them like a terrorist might. He terrorizes his own children with violence and rape. The irony of this is fully explored when he asserts sexual ownership of his daughter when she tries to fall in love with Ambrose.
Dancing and death
Mala looks like any old crazy lady to the people on her street, but when Otoh walks by, she delusionally assumes that he is actually his father. Otoh witnesses an extreme irony. After dancing together (which is already confusing behavior), she takes him inside and shows him a horrifying portrait of death. Because of the circumstances that caused her life of mental instability, she believes he will be happy and proud of her for having murdered the man who abused her. He is horrifically disturbed, but moved to compassion by her insane mental processes.
Insanity and drama
The irony of Mala's insanity is that it causes her to take vengeance for her suffering in an extreme way, which means that one could easily argue that the man's death was his own doing. By mistreating his family, he sets them up for mental failure, and then once full-blown insanity has emerged in her consciousness, she is no longer attached to reality in the same way. She feels entitled to take vengeance, which raises serious moral implications that the reader should carefully examine.
The fire
It is ironic that a devastating fire could be a method for salvation, but Mala is saved when Otoh commits arson on her behalf. The attack helps the prosecution from being able to construct a compelling case, and the judge's jusirprudence prohibits him from seeing her stand trial, but only because the compelling evidence was not as concrete as it might have been. The fire takes Mala's extreme behavior and erases the evidence. One might say this symbolizes the intentional use of dramatic irony in moral redemption.
