New Stars (Verbal Irony)
"I heard melancholy snores. I thought of the old man under the banyan tree. If we could just get away from India, then all fates would be canceled. We’d start with new fates, new stars. We could say or be anything we wanted. We’d be on the other side of the earth, out of God’s sight" (85).
Jasmine considers her future with Prakash, hoping that perhaps if they get to America, they can evade the fakir's prophecy. She hopes for "new stars," the irony being that no matter where she moves in the world, the stars will stay the same. The irony of her statement underscores the desperation of her situation.
The Splendor of an Abandoned Motel (Verbal Irony)
"I was seventeen years old. Why shouldn’t I have been taken in by the splendors of an abandoned motel?" (110)
The verbal irony of this statement is that her surroundings are the opposite of "splendid," and she is far from "taken in."
A Monstrous Idea (Situational Irony)
"I could not imagine a non-genetic child. A child that was not my own, or my husband’s, struck me as a monstrous idea. Adoption was as foreign to me as the idea of widow remarriage" (170-71).
The irony of this statement is that what Jasmine is describing as monstrous and foreign to her, an adopted child and a widow re-marriage, is exactly the life that will play out for her in Baden, Iowa with Bud.
Smart Magazines (Verbal Irony)
"Wylie’d wanted me to meet Stuart, and so I did. I think now that in the smart magazines that she read there were probably articles on the dos and don’ts for introducing your live-in caregiver to your live-out lover" (183-83).
Jasmine's wry suggestion draws attention to the absurdity of the urbane, "intellectual" media Wylie consumes and the absurdity of the situation she's describing, in which Wylie wants her to meet the man she's leaving Taylor for (and likely cheated on Taylor with) and subsequently gives Jasmine her blessing to take up with Taylor after she leaves.
