"Nothing in the world delights a truly religious people so much as consigning them to eternal damnation" (150) (Situational Irony)
Samuel Scrape makes this remark as he tells the tale told of the village of Auchtermuchty, where religious fervor kept them from seeing that their preacher was the devil. It is ironic because their religious faith was precisely what led to their downfall.
The Inability of the Narrative to Provide Necessary Information (Dramatic Irony)
There is irony on the grand scale in that the inclusion of both an objective narrative by the Editor as well as a thorough subjective account by Robert cannot provide the reader with the truth he or she seeks in regards to the identity of Gil-Martin as well as the reality of several of the events that occur.
Matters of Law and Literature (Dramatic Irony)
The critic Meredith Evans observes that it is ironic that one of the characters at the end hands Robert's manuscript to the Editor because he says he has matters of law and literature to look into: "Given the manner in which the pamphlet stages an inquiry into the relation between literature and the law, wryly complicated as it is by Hogg's playful narrative construction, the irony of this remark is unmistakeable."
Robert Getting Caught in the Loom's Threads (Situational Irony)
It is ironic when Robert gets caught in the web made by the threads of the looms at the weaver's house, as he is inextricably ensnared in a web of his own making that consists of perverted Calvinist theological ideas.
