The irony of the failed escape
When Theresa tries to escape, she fails for a painfully ironic reason—Bernard comes to her "rescue" in criminal court, eventually allowing the state to drop the charges against her for literally trying to murder Bernard to escape his tyrannical effect in her life. The violence against him is ironic, given her role as wife, but it is more ironic that her escape failed because, for the first time in her life, her husband "has her back."
The natural prison
If the story starts with a court case, it quickly moves to a sentencing. Theresa is forced into a kind of prison sentence, but her warden is her spouse. He is serving a natural role in her life as her mate. She is trapped by his malpractice and misunderstandings about gender roles, and also by his hatred and abuse, and ironically, her prison cell is the wilderness, where he takes her to live in isolation.
The irony of the sister savior
When Theresa is saved, it isn't by her own invention, like when she tries to poison her husband to escape. It is simply Bernard's own sister, a person who is ironic in the situation, because Bernard's sister represents the strange fact that his unthinkable mistakes in his marriage happened even though he had the female presence of a powerful female hero sister. Ironically, it is simply the love among women that frees Theresa.
The ironic wedding
Bernard's sister brings another ironic question into the book. Instead of starting with a wedding and moving toward dysfunction (like life), the book goes backward. It starts with a court dispute, moves through dysfunction, and ends with a wedding. Anne's wedding, that is. The ironic wedding symbolizes both the potential alternative to this story, the happy marriage, and the unanimous nature of romantic suffering.
The irony of power and powerlessness
The people who impose their will on others in their lives—are they typically powerful, healthy, autonomous people? The novel demonstrates the opposite of this, showing that ironically, it is the powerless people who crave power most, imposing their will on others. Ironically, the truly powerful people aren't imposing power on others, but rather, like Anne, they are taking care of their own business.
