How does it feels to marry an angel?
Lilia is going to marry Gino and her friend, Mrs Abbott, is very happy for her, but Philip, Lilia’s brother-in-law, is rather skeptical about this marriage, because he doesn’t know who her fiancée is. So, Mrs. Abbott tries to convince Philip, that this marriage is to be happy because Lilia and Gino love each other and “love marriages are made in heaven”, that phrase was such a nonsense for Philip that he couldn’t choose but ask Mrs Abbott if Lilia is to marry an angel. This light irony shows his disbelief that Lilia can choose a good party by herself.
A dentist in fairyland!
Philip burst with disgust and pain, when he found out that the father of Lilia’s fiancée is not a duke, as he suggested: he is just a dentist. A dentist in a small Italian town and he is not rich at all. He couldn’t hide his emotions and it is a comic situation when he starts to speak how Lilia dared to disgraced his family: “A boy of medium height with a pretty face, the son of a dentist at Monteriano. Have I put it correctly? May I surmise that he has not got one penny? May I also surmise that his social position is nil?”. The author uses this irony to show how miserable Philip is, because he regards that the good name of his family and the judgment of society is more important than Lilia’s happiness.
Sacrifice in the name of love
Lilia and Gino’s marriage was a failure for many reasons and one of them was that they didn’t understand each other. It wasn’t because they were of different age, they just didn’t know each other languages, so it lead to misunderstandings and sometimes comic situations. One of them happened when Lilia got the letter from Mrs. Herriton, where she told her that all future communication should be addressed to solicitors and asked her to send back the inlaid box, Harriet has lent her. Lilia, who never omitted the chance to stress on her condescension, told Gino “"Look what I am giving up to live with you”, so Gino suggested her not to give the inlaid box back, when it is so important for her. Lilia was irritated, because she meant her life, her social status and not a stupid box! This irony shows how different they are and that they have completely different values in life.
We cannot have everything
This phrase belongs to Gino’s friend, when he finds out, how old is his friend’s wife. Gino has told him, that she is beautiful and rich and kind and nice – the best wife ever to be desired: "She is rich, she is generous, she is affable, she addresses her inferiors without haughtiness”, and then his friend asks , if she is young, Gino answers that she is 33, and the fellow just gasps and says that one cannot have everything. And I’m definitely agree with the guy, this irony shows that there is always a spoon of tar in the barrel of honey.
Lilia’s one qualification for life
Lilia wasn’t an educated person, the author emphasizes that “She did not like music, or reading, or work. Her one qualification for life was rather high spirits, which turned querulous or boisterous according to circumstances.”. this irony is used to highlights Lilia’s features, she was like a child and didn’t know this world good, so she was easy to manipulate, both Mrs. Harriton and later Gino knew it and used it.
