The workers' march behind the Tramp (dramatic irony)
This scene is a classic example of the kind of dramatic irony often used in Chaplin films (and slapstick silent films in general). The Tramp begins following a truck that has accidentally dropped a flag, waving the flag to try to get their attention so he can give it back to them. Meanwhile, a massive crowd of marching workers rounds a corner behind him, and continues walking behind him at his pace. He does not realize that they are there, but the audience clearly sees them, and he unwittingly becomes a part of their protest. It ends up getting him in trouble when the police show up to break up the protest and they arrest him as the leader because he seemed to be leading the protest and waving a flag.
The large cellmate and his embroidery (situational irony)
When we are introduced to the Tramp’s new cellmate in prison, he seems to be an enormous, rough, intimidating man. The Tramp is visibly intimidated by him, and it creates a clear comparison between the type of person we expect to be in jail and the Tramp. After a few moments of staring at the Tramp, however, the large cellmate unexpectedly picks up his embroidery (or perhaps needle-point) and continues the embroidery that he was presumably working on before the Tramp entered. This is an example of situational irony because this action sharply diverges from what the audience (and the Tramp) expects of the cellmate. The Tramp then draws out this irony by making surprised or mocking faces about the embroidery, and alternatively flinching when the cellmate looks at him.
The rollerblading scene (dramatic and situational irony)
The scene in which the Tramp blindfolds himself and rollerblades around the fourth-floor toy department contains both dramatic and situational irony. First, we have a typical example of something happening near the Tramp that the audience sees but he fails to notice—while blindfolded, he skates past a massive hole in the floor, repeatedly putting himself in danger but narrowly avoiding the edge. This is an example of dramatic irony. Then, when the Gamin reaches him and takes his blindfold off to show him the danger, he gets so scared that he suddenly becomes very clumsy, despite the clear skill in skating that he demonstrates for the first part of the scene. This is an example of situational irony, because the audience expects him to more gracefully get away from the edge once he realizes the danger, based on his demonstrated skill, and instead he actually puts himself in more danger by opening his eyes and becoming flustered.
Losing his factory job (situational irony)
When the Tramp gets a job at the factory as the mechanic’s assistant, he quickly demonstrates incompetence. He leans on a lever and ruins equipment, he ruins the mechanic’s family heirloom, and he gets the mechanic stuck in the machine. Based on this behavior and the way that his incompetence has gotten him fired at other points in the movie, the audience expects him to eventually be fired over these issues, but the mechanic surprisingly never does this. Instead, the Tramp keeps on getting more chances to try to do better, until suddenly another worker announces to him and the mechanic that they are all going on strike, only hours after the factory reopened, and the Tramp loses his job because of this instead. This is an example of situational irony.
