Irony of Solitude
Throughout the novel, characters believe that they will never meet each other again. However, the nature of the novel is such that these individuals spend their lives returning to the group, bringing changes such as marriage, profession, and children with them. The characters do not escape the social bonds they share with the other friends present at each meeting, and they do not have the option to attain the solitude they believe themselves to desire.
Irony of Self-Consciousness
Characters often think of themselves in negative terms, and Virginia Woolf uses irony to show the fault in this self-consciousness. She juxtaposes the recognition of traits as the characters see them in themselves with the traits as seen by other characters; often, the things her characters despise in themselves are the exact pieces of them that her other characters want to model.
Overstatement of Traits
Characters such as Bernard periodically overstate their place in the world and the position of prominence they believe themselves to occupy. This irony of this chronic overstatement is enhanced in light of the novel's progression of a cosmic day. The nature of the overstatement - and often, the accompanying understatement - shifts as the characters grow and develop.
Irony of Death
As the reader, we see the changes to energy as harbingers of death; the characters are living their most energetic selves, but these have limits. The death which remains in the minds of the characters as abstractions stuns the characters, and we know about the deaths of individuals immediately after the first one of the characters knows.
Irony of Cosmic Day
Each episode of the novel begins with the imagery of a passing day, and the readers see how the action of the novel tracks a timeline. The characters rationally understand the progression of their lives, but Woolf shows us through the irony of this cosmic day that they never fully expect the next moment, even when they anticipate active choices such as marriage.
