The ironic role reversal
Fontaine is a female iteration of behaviors that are classically male flaws in literature. She ruins herself by trying to build an empire with too much hubris and selfish, emotional interests. In this way, she sets herself up for an ironic kind of rejection where she loses at business, like a typical male character might if they made decisions like hers, and also she loses her husband, evidence that she still has vested interests in the systems she bemoans.
The irony of jealousy
Jealousy is an indication of lack, so it is ironic, because although Fontaine wears her husband's wealth as if it is her own, this is an indication that she doesn't really feel entitled to it. Jealous behavior like her possessive, hyper-controlling approach to owning a club, is evidence not of what she thinks (that she can get what she wants because she is powerful) but of the opposite (that she is weak and deceptive).
Dolores, the ironic replacement
There is irony in Benjamin's rebuttal to the emotional attack Fontaine sets up for him by cheating on him all the time. Because he perceives Fontaine's mistakes to be evidence of a low self esteem, he exploits her directly and aggressively, replacing her before he announces his divorce from her. That means dramatic irony for Fontaine, because he removes any of the dramatic reward she might have won if he had wept for the loss (like she secretly wants). Instead he replaces her with a super model.
The irony of glamour
This novel portrays glamour as a kind of disgusting thing, because it is Fontaine's glamorous approach to her own personality that makes the reader more likely to feel that she "had it coming." This is because the novelist portrays her need to be perceived as glamorous as evidence that she is not respectable. She cheats on her husband and imposes sexually predatory rules in her work place, and she covers this dysfunction with demonstrations of wealth or power.
The irony of power
These point to a greater irony, the irony between weakness and power. Because the weaker characters in this novel have more to gain, they feel, they often push the envelope too far, hanging themselves in the process. Tony's intelligence is bright enough to understand the way Fontaine is using him, but he instantly decides to use someone else, which is evidence that he is not better than his abuser. Ironically, this positions him in a place of weakness because Alexandra can smell his self-esteem issues from a mile away, and she was looking for someone to use anyway.
