The Irony of Lola's Association with Stitch
When Rosario runs away, she leaves Pascual with serious abandonment issues since she was the only person he loved and relied upon. She leaves to work as a prostitute for a man named Stitch. When Pascual learns that his wife, Lola, has been working for Stitch as well, in his absence, he loses his cool. The irony is that the two women he chooses to trust both leave him for the same man.
The Irony of Pascual's Departure
After his son dies, Pascual leaves his family without saying a word. He decides to travel to America, but he can't afford the voyage and stays in Madrid and its suburbs for a while. Desperate to escape the pain of losing a child, he decides ironically to further remove himself from loved ones. He leans away from family and stability and health in order to indulge his fears, but he could have found healing alongside his wife the entire time. His failure to reach America symbolizes his failure to find closure.
The Irony of the Dog's Death
After losing his son, Pascual writes about feeling paranoid that everyone around him is judging him, blaming him for the death. Just afer explaining that he hates his mother for this supposed judgement, he sees his dog look at him the wrong way. Immediately he kills the dog, both foreshadowing his eventual murder of his mom and disproving his reason for hating her. He really is paranoid. The dog doesn't have any moral code by which to judge him, so his suspicions about the dog shaming him are false, as are those about his mother and wife.
The Irony of Lola's Introduction
Lola meets Pascual after Mario's funeral. She's confrontational and challenges his manhood, based upon her own sexual desirability. She accuses him of being gay for not having already had sex with her. In response, he does so right there in the graveyard, forcibly. Although she could never have been held responsible for the rape, she does provoke Pascual to violence. He is accountable for raping her. Lola is, however, dishonored in the same location where she dishonored the dead by criticizing Pascual for not having already had relations with her, despite the circumstances of his brother's funeral.
The Irony of Pascual's Time in Jail
When he returns home after serving three years in jail, Pascual notes how disappointed he is to return. In jail he did not have to deal with his mother's nagging and abuse, but now he is reminded why he turned violent in the first place. Although jail traditionally seems like a punishment, to him it was a relief.
