The Irony of Podkoliosin
The premise of the play is this: Podkoliosin is not married. He wants to be married; therefore, he goes in search of a wife.
The irony of Podkolision is this: he is not married. He absolutely does not want to be married, despite his temporary and noncommittal assurances to the contrary; therefore he spends the novel attempting to avoid this plague of marriage to which he has unconsciously committed himself.
Podkoliosin's indecisive and fickle natures combine to make him an inherently ironic character: anything he says is liable to be reversed, so it always seems as if he is working against himself. His desire for marriage hides an underlying desire to avoid marriage, which most dramatically manifests itself in the famous window-jumping scene, in which his visceral desire to avoid responsibility trumps his intellectual conclusion that marriage will be a good thing.
The Irony of Fiokla
As a matchmaker, Fiokla's job is to match two people together based on honest descriptions of each other, as deception would lead to unhappy marriages. Ironically, Fiokla does just the opposite; she depicts all her customers as worthy and desirable, with few flaws, regardless of their true natures. Her tendency to exaggerate positive characteristics and downplay negative ones creates much tension, leading to several men being angry with her for her deception.
The Irony of Kochkariov
Kochkariov is unhappily married; he is furious at Fiokla for setting him up with his wife, who seems to be nothing more than a burden for him. Despite this, he immediately goes about the task of finding his friend Podkoliosin a wife, a task which he seems to find genuine selfless pleasure in performing, arguing that it will be for Podkoliosin's ultimate good.
The Irony of Yaichnitsa
Yaichnitsa is a large, imposing, dominating man who might seem intimidating at first glance, if by nothing more than his girth. In contrast to this intimidating exterior, however, his last name is diminutively ironic. "Yaichnitsa," in Russian, means "fried eggs" or "omelet," making this imposing man the butt of several jokes throughout the play.
The Irony of Anuchkin
Anuchkin, one of Agafya's suitors, desires only one thing in a prospective wife: the ability to speak French fluently. Ironically, Anuchkin himself speaks no French, believing only that French fluency is a mark of gentility in a woman.
